Texas County remains active in venture, commits $50m to Summit Partners

The Texas County and District Retirement System (TCDRS) is one of the most active public pension investors in venture capital.

The Austin, Texas-based pension’s latest investment in the asset class is a $50 million commitment to Summit Partners Venture Capital Fund V, according to the organization’s website. This brings TCDRS’ venture investment for the year to $305 million, which is more than half of the $460 million that the system committed to VC in all of 2019.

Summit Partners V closed in June at $1 billion, greater than the $900 million it was targeting for the fund. The Boston-based firm’s flagship fund invests in mid-stage and growth-stage companies across sectors, including life sciences, cybersecurity and e-commerce.

Summit’s fund collected $183 million from public pension plans, which besides TCDRS include the Maine Public Employees Retirement Fund, the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana, the Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, the Merced County Employees Retirement Association and the Sacramento County Employees’ Retirement System, according to data compiled by Private Equity International, an affiliate of Venture Capital Journal.

During this year, the Texas LP also committed $100 million to Lightspeed Venture Partners, $40 million to Mayfield, €​75 million ($85 million) to Summit Partners Europe Growth Equity Fund and $30 million to DCVC Bio II, as previously reported by the VCJ.

At the end of Q1, the $29.1 billion retirement system had about $5.6 billion in private equity, or 16.8 percent of the assets, below the pension fund’s 18 percent PE allocation target.

TCDRS aims to allocate 20 percent of its private equity bucket to venture capital, which is about 3.6 percent of its total portfolio.