Spectrum Equity Raises $1.5 Billion Fund to Find Next GrubHub

(Bloomberg) -- Spectrum Equity has raised a $1.5 billion new fund to invest in startups that are in their growth stage.

The firm, with offices in San Francisco and Boston, previously has invested in GrubHub Inc., SurveyMonkey Inc., Headspace Inc. and Ancestry.com Inc. Its last fund, in 2017, raised $1.25 billion.

The new fund will be used to make more growth-stage investments, writing checks from $25 million to more than $150 million, said Ben Spero, a managing director at Spectrum. The firm takes both minority and majority stakes.

Spectrum, founded in 1994, is led by managing directors Vic Parker and Chris Mitchell, along with Spero.

Spero said that, after the firm invests in companies, he and his colleagues like to guide them through acquisitions. Spectrum was involved with the 2013 merger of Seamless North America LLC and GrubHub, which is now negotiating a potential acquisition by Uber Technologies Inc.

Despite market volatility triggered by the global coronavirus pandemic, Spero said he is optimistic that M&A will remain active this year.

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