Fund Briefs

Charlie O’Donnell, the Union Square Ventures and First Round Capital veteran, revealed recently that he has held a $3.5 million close for his inaugural Brooklyn Bridge Ventures fund that is expected to grow to $10 million. Two Sigma Ventures, the private VC affiliate of Two Sigma Investments, provided an anchor commitment to the fund. O’Donnell said on his blog that a “significant amount also came from KEC holdings,” a New Jersey-based family office led by Jeff Citron. Other backers include partners from First Round Capital and Wilson Sonsini, as well as individual investors Wiley and Allison Cerilli, David Rose, Tom Wisniewski, Chad Stoller and Ramesh Haridas, according to O’Donnell’s blog post. The fund will be geared toward seed-stage investments.

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Lightstone Ventures, which was formed earlier this year by life sciences partners at Morgenthaler Ventures and Advanced Technology Ventures, is reportedly raising a fund of at least $200 million. The firm will focus on early-stage therapeutics. Last year, Morgenthaler and ATV told their investors they planned to spin off their life sciences teams and merge them, amid a challenging environment for life sciences. The partners will reportedly remain involved in the existing life-sciences and health investments at those firms, but new investments will be made from Lightstone.

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Lerer Ventures, the New York City-based seed-stage venture firm, is raising a $30 million fund, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lerer Ventures III will be the VC’s third fund. Prior funds were for about $25 million and $8 million, raised in 2011 and 2010, respectively.

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The firm has invested in more than 80 companies, largely in the media and consumer Internet space. Portfolio companies include Rap Genius, Romotive, Warby Parker and PandoDaily.

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Early stage growth investor DN Capital has reached a first close on its new fund, GVCIII. The close comes soon after the firm has achieved exits from the sale of Datanomicand Endeca to Oracle in 2011; and the sale of Apsmart to Thomson Reuters (publisher of VCJ) earlier this year. DN Capital did not release details of the first close, or the target for the new fund. The firm has offices in London and Palo Alto, Calif.

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The New York eHealth Collaborative and the Partnership for New York City Fund have announced the inaugural class of the New York Digital Health Accelerator, a program with an initial investment of $4.2 million. Eight startups received $300,000 each, along with mentoring opportunities with executives in the health care field. Investment for the fund comes from Aetna, Janssen Healthcare Innovation, Milestone Venture Partners, New Leaf Venture Partners, Quaker Partners, Safeguard Scientifics and UnitedHealth Group.

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Crosslink Capital said it raised $320 million for its latest fund, Crossover Fund VI L.P. The new fund will be actively invested through April 30, 2018 and 6% of total funding has been committed by Crosslink’s general partners and employees. San Francisco-based Crosslink is s venture and growth equity investor with more than $1.8 billion in assets. Investments include Pandora, Ancestry.com and Omniture.

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Stratim Capital is reportedly seeking a $150 million third fund. Marketing for Fund III reportedly started several weeks ago and the pool has received expressions of interest worth roughly $50 million, according to VCJ online affiliate peHUB. San Francisco-based Stratim provides liquidity for investors by buying shares of VC and PE-backed companies. Several Stratim executives, including founder Zachary Abrams, hail from Lake Street Capital, which is also a San Francisco-based direct secondary firm. Stratim invests in such sectors as technology, financial services and business services. Stratim has invested in 3PAR, VeriCenter and Double-Take Software. Current investments include Linden Lab, Cafe Press and savings.com.

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European venture investor Wellington Partners has reached a first close of Wellington Partners IV Life Science Fund. The fund has attracted commitments from investors of €70 million ($91.3 million). The fund is targeted at €120 million ($156 million), which is significantly larger than the previous €78 million ($101 million) Wellington Partners III Life Science Fund. Wellington Partners has offices in Munich, London and Zurich.

Compiled by Clancy Nolan