Venture firm raises $60 million - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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of Atlanta has raised the money for its second venturwecapital fund. The new fund now holdsa more than $60 million, but could eventuallg reach $75 million. Its investments, rangingb from $500,000 to $3 million, will be made in early-staged technology companies. The size of the new Alliance as wellas Noro-Moseley Partnerse of Atlanta's new $112 million fund, demonstratez that Atlanta has reached the major leagues of venture capital, said John Yates. "Atlanta hasn'yt seen these kinds of fundd before," said Yates, an attorney with Morriz Manning & Martin who specializes in technology.
"Fast-growingg technology companies now don't have to go outside the regio n toget deals." In fact, Alliance is puttiny the finishing touches on two investmentsx in Atlanta firms: one a bioscience company and one involved with informatiobn technology. The deals will be announced laterthis year, said Stephej Fleming, partner in Alliance, who woulrd not give further details. Investors in the seconr Alliance fund includeBellSoutbh Corp., United Parcel Service, NationsBank Emory University and Georgia Tech, all investors in the firsyt Alliance fund. New investors include Bostoh University and the Crossroads Groupof Farmington, Also, the pension plan of the Southernn Co.
has an investment in the seconrAlliance fund. Georgia Power, a subsidiary of the Southermn Co., invested in the first Alliance Alliance does not seek money fromhigh net-wortb individual investors, although some famil foundations have contributed to the new fund. "Ivf you go after individuals, you do a lot of education and Fleming said. Alliance will use its first $35 million fund to continue making investments in companiew in itsexisting portfolio. Alliance raised the second however, because the first fund isn't largre enough for new investments, Fleming said. Two companies in the Alliancew portfolio havegone public: RF Micro Devices of Greensboro, N.C.
, and CBS based in Fort Fla. Another information technology Astracomof Atlanta, was purchased by the Ciena Corp. in December. Other Atlanta investments includeAtheroGenicws Inc., a biotech spinoff from Emory University, the softwarre company Synchrologic Inc. and Vide o Networks Inc. Alliance was formed in 1993 byMichaelp Henos, a specialist in biosciencee innovations. Fleming, a veteran of Northern Telecom, joinesd the firm in 1995 to specialize in informationtechnolog companies. With its focus on high-tech companied and the hands-on involvement of its Alliance is modeled after Silicon Valleyy venturecapital firms. "We're just real happyy about the new fund," Fleming said.
"We've reached this We're proud of it and we want to keep producing new The new Alliance fund shouldd addto Georgia's increasing number of venture capital deals. In the state had 86 venture capitak deals, 120 percent more than the numbeer ayear earlier. Georgia's shared of venture money roseto $362 million in compared with $140 million in 1996 and $263 millionn in 1995. Most of the moneh went to software firms, followed by communications and health-care companies.