Mayfield X Slated For Late-May Launch –

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Mayfield Fund at press time was readying a late-May launch for Mayfield X, said General Partner Wendell Van Auken.

The fund will follow the firm’s strategy of backing early-stage information technology and health-care companies.

“It will be over $400 million, but I can’t pin [the size] down any more precisely than that right now,” Mr. Van Auken said.

At $400 million, Mayfield X would be $150 million larger than 1997’s Mayfield IX (VCJ, July 1997, page 16). Mayfield’s investment team hopes raising a substantially larger fund will allow the firm to wait three years, rather than two, before returning to market for new commitments. If the group can wait until 2002, Mayfield X portfolio companies will be more mature, giving the firm more to show potential L.P.s.

Mayfield IX will continue to make new investments, Mr. Van Auken said, estimating the fund’s portfolio would be complete by July or August.

Although terms for the new vehicle had not been set by press time, Mr. Van Auken said he did not expect any radical changes. Mayfield IX features a 2.5% management fee and a 75%/25% carried interest split.

The firm has 10 general partners, two focused full time on health care, two who split their time between health care and information technology, and six who devote their efforts entirely to IT. Mr. Van Aucken expects the firm eventually to add to its G.P. ranks, although he would not give a specific number of intended hires.

He did, however, note that any new G.P. likely would come from among the firm’s venture partners, not from outside the firm.

The firm has six venture partners: Dado Banatao, Todd Brooks, David Ladd, Allen Morgan, A. Richard Newton and John Stockton.