Houston’s Mercury Raising $125M Fourth Fund

Houston-based Mercury Fund has raised $82 million for its fourth fund, Mercury Fund Ventures IV, for which it aims to raise a total of $125 million, according to a regulatory filing that PE Hub reported on Thursday.

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Founded in 2005, Mercury Fund has $275 million under management (per its website) and has historically focused on investing in “middle America.” That doesn’t mean it doesn’t back companies on the coasts. Its most recent investment was participating in South San Francisco-based BlackThorn Therapeutics’s $76 million Series B.

If Mercury Fund raises its targeted $125 million, this fourth fund would be its largest, according to Crunchbase data. It raised $20 million in its first fund in 2005, $70 million for its second fund in 2010 and $105 million in its third fund in 2014. The firm typically waits four to five years in between raising new funds.

It targets SaaS, cloud, and data science/AI platforms “that make the industrial ecosystems of Middle America more competitive and efficient,” according to its website. The firm was previously known as “DFJ Mercury,” and was a member of the DFJ affiliate network, but “dropped that branding in 2012,” according to PE Hub.

Over the years, Mercury has had 16 known exits, according to its Crunchbase profile. Most recently in January, Austin-based portfolio company TrendKite sold to Cision for $225 million.

Managing directors Blair Garrou (also co-founder), Dan Watkins (also co-founder), Adrian Fortino and Aziz Gilani are all listed as general partners on the filing.

The fund would be the latest in a string of new funds raised in Texas this year so far. Last month, we reported on Santé Ventures, an Austin-based healthcare and life science-focused venture firm, raising $250 million in its third fund. In April, we covered Austin-based LiveOak Venture Partners’ close of its second fund, which topped out at $105 million.

I’ve reached out to Mercury Fund for comment and will update this post if they get back to me.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias