Houston-Based Mercury Fund Targets $125 Million For Fourth (And Largest) Fund, Per SEC Filing

The venture fundraising train made a whistle stop in Texas today.

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According to an SEC filing posted late this afternoon, Houston, Texas-based Mercury Fund is raising a new venture capital fund, the firm’s fourth. The filing suggests that “Mercury Fund Ventures IV, L.P.” is targeting $125 million for the investment fund, and has hired the firm Bradley Woods & Co. to assist in the fundraising process.

Mercury Fund has not closed any LP capital at the time of the filing, and it should be noted that this filing is subject to amendments and changes over time.

If the firm is successful in its fundraising efforts, Fund IV would be Mercury Fund’s biggest capital pool closed in the firm’s history. The chart below shows the size of the firm’s flagship funds over time.

Mercury Fund raised its first fund in March 2005 as an affiliate of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Mercury Fund’s first two investment vehicles were raised with DFJ branding, and the firm itself was called DFJ Mercury. In November 2012, however, the firm announced it was dropping the DFJ branding and renamed itself to Mercury Fund. Mercury Fund is not listed as a member fund of the Draper Venture Network at this time.

Mercury Fund, to date, remains largely sector-agnostic about its investments. It has put capital in fields as diverse as biotechnology, enterprise software, energy, and IoT. Despite this diversity in sector investment, a majority of the firm’s portfolio companies are mostly based in Texas, while others are scattered throughout California and the U.S. Midwest. Given that most investors like to make deals close to home, it’s no surprise that the Mercury Fund is keeping its money close to Texas.

As always, Crunchbase News will keep tabs on this and other filings and issue updates as new details emerge.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias