Norwest Venture Partners Raises $1.5 Billion Fund

(Bloomberg) -- Norwest Venture Partners said it has raised $1.5 billion for its new fund XIV, making it the second venture firm in eight days to raise more than $1 billion.

 "This is the fruit of the diversity strategy we started about 10 years ago," said Jeff Crowe, managing partner, referring to the time before the diversity push when the firm stuck to early-stage U.S. investments. Now, the firm invests across all stages of a company’s development and from offices including Israel and India.

Its broader mandate requires more cash, and the firm's average fund size has risen steadily over the years. NVP XIII, which closed two years ago, was $1.2 billion. The size of the average funding round at every stage of investment has risen over the years, too, adding to the need for more available money, Crowe said.

 Last week, Battery Ventures said it had raised $1.25 billion for a pair of funds. Other large funds include NEA's $3.3 billion vehicle, raised last year, and SoftBank Group Corp.'s Vision Fund of almost $100 billion.

To contact the author of this story: Sarah McBride in San Francisco at smcbride24@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Molly Schuetz at mschuetz9@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack

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