The current economic climate isn’t stopping a Chapel Hill investor with billions worth of assets under management from launching what it hopes will be a $750 million fund.
A year after announcing the closing of its seventh venture capital fund-of-funds, Chapel Hill-based venture capital firm TrueBridge Capital Partners has launched an eighth vehicle in that arena.
Dubbed TrueBridge Capital Partners Fund VIII, it has yet to raise a single dollar according to a securities filing that dropped Monday. But the filing lists a cap of $750 million – the same amount of commitments TrueBridge secured for its seventh venture capital fund-of-funds a year ago.
TrueBridge co-founder Edwin Poston did not immediately return a request to comment on the filing.
The firm primarily invests capital into high performing venture capital firms with strong track records, according to its website. TrueBridge has a long history of fundraising in the Triangle, starting with its first fund, at $310 million back in 2008, which backers such as the South Carolina employment retirement system (which committed $40 million) and the North Carolina Retirement Systems (which committed $50 million in 2007 and 2008).
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UNC-Chapel Hill graduates Mel Williams and Poston founded the firm in 2007. Williams was a former member of the team that managed UNC’s endowment. Poston previously managed private equity at the Rockefeller Foundation.
TrueBridge launched as a fund-to-fund investor, one where cash it raised was entrusted to other money managers investing in venture capital and private equity firms. TrueBridge would add to its business model over the years, also funding both early-stage and late-stage technology ventures.
More recently it launched a series of what it labeled as “Direct Funds” to target investments in technology companies such as Instacart, Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) and Pinterest (NYSE: PINS). It also launched a series of “Seed & Micro-VC Funds” to target emerging seed and micro-VC managers.
According to TrueBridge’s website, it has $5.5 billion in assets under management.