Wellington Financial Launches $300 Million Fund V

It has only been three years since we closed our $200 million Fund IV, but we are about to press release the first close of Wellington Financial Fund V, our new $900 million investment program.

Wellington Financial Fund IV, capitalized with $200 million of re-circulating equity capital in 2012, was a successor fund to three previous entities. Fund IV committed more than $225 million via 28 growth capital transactions over a 3-year period.

Fund V is already well on its way to reaching its “hard cap” of $300 million of re-circulating equity commitments. As you can imagine, we are honoured to have earned the sustained confidence of institutional investors, entrepreneurs and their venture capital partners. Fund V positions our firm to provide entrepreneurs with anywhere from $2 million to $40 million of growth capital per company. Entrepreneurs need comfort that firms such as ours can grow with them as their needs evolve, and this new fund can do just that.

That’s the real change between Funds IV and V: the ability to grow with firms as they pass from being sub $10M revenue businesses to upwards of $50M or even $100M in revenue. That’s when capital needs start to get very meaningful, and CFOs would far rather stick with the folks who got them there then start over in a new relationship.

With this latest fund, we have raised over $700 million of capital from the private institutional limited partnership community since 2004 –- more than any other early / mid stage innovation-focused fund in Canada during the same timeframe. Our new vehicle is positioned to support the occasional private equity-backed transaction, too.

We are also announcing today the recent addition of Ash Vaidya as a Partner in the Silicon Valley office. Mr. Vaidya, a graduate of Cornell University, has a wealth of experience in the venture debt industry on both sides of the border. He joins Wellington’s existing California-based team of Paul McKinlay (Silicon Valley) and Eric Speer (Santa Monica).

Wellington Financial Fund V will continue to follow the same proven model by assisting both public and private companies with a demonstrated customer following, minimum of $5 million in trailing revenue, talented management and well-defined growth strategies.

Thanks to every one of our limited partners for the ongoing support and confidence in our team!

MRM