Alaska Permanent Fund commits $180m to four venture firms

The Alaska Permanent Fund committed $180 million to four major venture firms during the first quarter of 2020, according to the $62.6 billion fund’s latest quarterly meeting documents.

The Juneau, Alaska sovereign wealth fund’s largest commitment of the year so far was $75 million to Lightspeed Venture Partners, a Menlo Park firm, which in April raised $4.2 billion across three funds. Alaska Permanent committed to two of these funds: Lightspeed Venture Partners XIII, an $890 million fund focused on seed, Series A and Series B rounds, and a Lightspeed Venture Partners Select IV, a $1.8 billion fund for supporting the firm’s existing portfolio companies.  

The organization also announced a re-up of $55 million to two Index Ventures vehicles. The San Francisco firm closed on $800 million early-stage Index Ventures X and $1.2 billion Index Growth V for investing in later-stage companies.

Additionally, the Alaska Permanent Fund invested $36 billion in the multi-stage firm investor Battery Ventures, which raised $2 billion across two funds in February.

Lastly, the sovereign wealth fund backed Mayfield. The firm announced two funds for a combined $750 million in committed capital in March.  

It remains to be seen if the sovereign wealth fund will be a significant backer in Sequoia Capital, which is reportedly raising $7 billion across a set of funds. Alaska Permanent invested $200 million in the Menlo Park firm’s $8 billion mega fund in 2018.

The organization plans to increase its allocation to private equity from 15 percent to 19 percent over the next five years by investing about $1.6 billion in the asset class annually, according to its quarterly meeting documents.