Lots of venture capital firms are raising growth equity funds to, in part, buy secondary stakes in hot private companies like Facebook and Twitter. Battery Ventures, however, is not one of them.
I only bring it up because peHUB seems to have misinterpreted Battery’s recent filing for a $173 million “Opportunity Fund.”
A source familiar with the situation says that the pool actually is part of Battery’s internal wealth management program, in which firm employees have personal capital invested in a variety of asset classes. This is separate from employee money invested in Battery’s most recent venture capital fund, which closed on $750 million in March 2010.
To be clear, Battery does plenty of late-stage investing — including participation in a $135 million Series C round for Groupon last April. It even does some buyouts. What it doesn’t do is raise a dedicated fund for such deals.