Blue Chip IV Aims for $300 Million –

CINCINNATI – Blue Chip Venture Co. is raising Blue Chip IV, targeted at $300 million, said Managing Director John McIlwraith. The fund will close when it reaches the targeted amount or by the end of May, whichever is sooner, he added.

A first close was held in December and McIlwraith noted the fund is well on its way to its target.

The vehicle will seek early stage investments, often making its first investment in a company during its first institutional funding round. The firm focuses on information technology and telecommunications companies.

“Because we’re based in the Midwest, we continue to invest in health care and other industries,” McIlwraith said.

He said the firm invests half its capital in the Midwest – Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The firm maintains strategic relationships with other venture capitalists to help the firm source deals and manage portfolio companies. In the Midwest, the firm interacts with Indianapolis-based Gazelle Tech Ventures; Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Arbor Partners; Cleveland-based Ohio Innovation Fund and Dayton, Ohio-based Miami Valley Venture Fund.

In time for BC IV, Blue Chip added a venture partner on each coast to help with investing and managing portfolio companies. Venture Partner Adnan Durrani is based in Stamford, Conn., while Alok Mohan is based in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Not including the venture partners, the firm now has three managing directors (including McIlwraith), three other partner-level investment professionals and four associates.

For further information on this story, please see the March 2001 issue of Venture Capital Journal.

Charles Fellers can be contacted at