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This article was published on March 26, 2012

NEA, the huge low-profile VC firm, is raising $2.3 billion for its fourteenth fund


NEA, the huge low-profile VC firm, is raising $2.3 billion for its fourteenth fund

New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the largest and most successful investment firms on the planet, has filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicating its intent to raise a major fourteenth fund.

NEA is apparently looking to raise $2.3 billion for the fund, which is in line with (albeit slightly less than) the capital it raised for its two previous funds.

New Enterprise Associates’ thirteenth fund, which it began investing in May 2009, closed at nearly $2.5b. Its prior fund closed in 2006 and was just over $2.5b.

All in all, NEA had more than $11 billion in committed capital across its 13 closed funds. Fun fact: its very first investment fund had only $16 million of capital.

In case you’re not familiar with NEA, you’re not the only one. Nevertheless, the firm is huge and has a formidable track record. Past tech investments include (deep breath) 3Com, Groupon, Advertising.com, Drobo, Diapers.com, Salesforce.com, WebMD, Boku, Loopt, TiVo, Playdom, Fusion-io, Workday, Zinio, Tableau Software, 23andme, Care.com, Elance, Sprout Social, WebEx and Box, among many others.

Before founding the firm, NEA co-founder and chairman Dick Kramlich was one of the first to invest in companies like Apple and Intel.

The VC firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California with offices in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. as well as Bangalore, Mumbai, Beijing and Shanghai.

For your comparison: top VC firm Andreessen Horowitz raised $2.7 billion in the 3 years after its founding, Khosla Ventures closed a $1.05 billion fund in late 2011, while other big-name investors such as Elevation Partners and DST are both reportedly looking to raise $1 billion for new funds.

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