Fundraising Roundup

The Gores Group last Friday closed its second fund with $1.3 billion in capital commitments. Expect a press release within a week or two.

The Los Angeles-based firm began fundraising with a $750 million cover price and a $1 billion expectation, but accepted oversubscription because the size of its deal opportunities has grown substantially over the past year. Senior managing director Scott Honour says that Gores has no plans to staff up due to the major capital jolt, although it is continuing efforts to fill a pair of operational positions. Gores raised $400 million for its previous fund in 2003.

*** Vector Capital also is about to bust its target, with plans to close on just over $1 billion within the next few weeks. A regulatory filing showed that the San Francisco-based firm had secured $691.5 million through June 7.

The firm closed its prior fund on around $350 million, and decided to bulk up after more and more of its deals required large co-investments from limited partners. For example, Vector provided a $60 million equity check when taking Corel Corp. private in August 2003 – but only $20 million came from Vector’s actual fund. In other words, it decided to raise additional fund capital so all of its LPs could gain substantially from positive returns, rather than just those with co-investment programs.

*** Battery Ventures is still on target to close its new fund with $850 million by next Monday. As part of the close, Battery is expected to promote three partners to general partner. They are: Michael Brown, Sunil Dhaliwal and Neeraj Agrawal.