Chapel Hill, NC - TrueBridge Capital Partners has defied the odds with a $342 million final closing of its second fund of funds focused on venture capital and growth equity.
The Chapel Hill, N.C.-based fund-of-funds manager has exceeded the $325 million target for TrueBridge-Kauffman Fellows Endowment Fund II LP in an environment that has forced growing numbers of fund-of-fund managers to scale back the sizes of their offerings or stop fund-raising all together.
TrueBridge devotes a portion of both its management fees and the carried interest from its funds of funds to support the Kauffman Fellows program, a two-year training program that places individuals within venture firms to learn how to become venture capitalists.
Over the past three or four years, TrueBridge has provided $1.5 million to $2 million to the program, although the real payoff for the program is expected to come in several years from carried interest generated by TrueBridge's first fund of funds, according to General Partner Edwin Poston. That offering closed at $310 million in 2008.
Its ties to the network of former Kauffman Fellows have helped the firm both on the fund-raising trail and in evaluating prospective commitments, said Poston. Between its two funds of funds, the firm counts some 100 venture capitalists as limited partners, a number of whom are former Kauffman Fellows themselves.
The firm has also reached out to the network when conducting manager due diligence.
"Sometimes it's hard to know what's going on inside these firms," said Poston. "When we're underwriting a firm they can help give us a sense of who on the team has good deal flow, who is a value-added board member and what the culture of the firm is like. We get far more of nuanced view of what's going on."
TrueBridge tends to build fairly concentrated portfolios and allocates commitments through four separate buckets, including North American technology-focused venture funds, life-sciences-focused venture funds, growth equity funds and non U.S. venture funds, particularly ones in China and India. Over the years, the firm has backed funds managed by firms that include Accel Partners, Andreesen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Redpoint Ventures.
The firm, which began committing Fund II back in 2010, has already committed a little less than half of the capital to nine partnerships.
TrueBridge tends to favor early-stage venture capital funds, particularly ones based in California where its two founders see the most fertile ground for venture investing.
"Ten years ago there was more enthusiasm for places outside of Silicon Valley and that hasn't proven to be as successful as people had hoped," said Poston, adding that not only has the large number of technology companies based in California created a fertile breeding ground for venture talent, but that the area is also home to many of the most prolific strategic acquirers of venture-backed companies.