NewView Capital raises $544m, will provide liquidity to other VCs

Growth equity investor NewView Capital has raised $544 million in two new funds as it seeks to expand its portfolio and find other companies that it can buy stakes in from other funds.

The firm, which formed in 2018 through a $1.35 billion direct secondaries deal, began raising capital in 2020.

NewView Capital Fund II will focus on mid-to-growth stage companies in sectors including fintech, artificial intelligence, software as a service, consumer internet, edtech and healthtech.

Meanwhile, NewView’s Special Opportunities Fund I will help the venture firm to look for “baskets of portfolios being liquidated” from other funds. More than $300 million was allotted for the Special Opportunity Fund while its second fund raised $240 million.

Ravi Viswanathan, NewView Capital founder, told affiliate title Venture Capital Journal that the strategy with the special opportunity fund is to carve out curated baskets of companies from other VCs, individuals and angels.

“If you look at the fundraising market the last couple of years, funds are coming back to market faster with bigger funds and more portfolio companies,” Viswanathan said. “There are opportunities there for us to seek liquidity from those investments that firms who may not have the capacity to manage that large a portfolio anymore would want to offer.”

He said the fund wanted to focus on this strategy because it allows NewView to provide operational value and lets them be more flexible with how they want to deploy capital. With the special opportunity fund, NewView can invest on a primary, secondary or hybrid basis.

NewView, which was founded in 2018, began with this strategy in mind. Viswanathan spun off NewView from New Enterprise Associates and acquired 31 companies from the fund to bring to NewView’s portfolio.

Its second fund, on the other hand, focuses on newer investments, though Viswanathan emphasised that while there are two funds, the same team works on both. Its first fund closed on $1.35 billion in 2018.

With the close of the two new funds, NewView now has more than $2.2 billion in assets under management. Some of its portfolio investments include Forter, Plaid, Messebird, 23andMe, Duolingo, and Scopely.

Besides the fundraising, NewView has been hiring: Ben Fu is its newest investment partner and James Beck is chief operating officer.

– This report was originally published on affiliate title Venture Capital Journal.