Thursday, January 24, 2013

Ignition Scales Back Fund Size, Partners

Seattle-based venture investor Ignition Partners is making some big--very big--changes to its structure, according to reports Thursday evening, and plans to raise a $150M fund with only three senior partners. According to FORTUNE, which broke the story, Ignition is scaling back its newest fund to just $150M, down significantly from its prior fund, raised in 2007, which was $400M. As part of that move, the new fund's partners will only include John Connors, Frank Artale, and Nick Sturiale, meaning--as FORTUNE reports--"lots of people are on their way out." Ignition is not the only venture capital fund to face similar issues in recent years, as venture funds have faced headwinds from a less-than-stellar IPO market, scaling back of limited partners in venture capital allotments, and exits via acquisitions which have been unable to sustain the returns expected in those venture funds.