Friday, August 1, 2008

Report: Ampersand targets $400M for new fund

By Mass High Tech Staff

Private equity firm Ampersand Ventures is raising a new $400 million fund, according to published reports.

The 80-year-old Wellesley-based firm targets companies in the health care and industrial sectors generating revenue of $10 million to $100 million a year. Portfolio companies include Cambridge-based Endeca Technologies Inc. and Chelmsford-based Magellan Biosciences Inc.

The firm typically invests between $10 and $50 million in its portfolio companies, officials said. Last year, Magellan Biosciences, a medical diagnostics firm, sold for an undisclosed amount its laboratory sample management and storage business, TekCel Inc., to Reno, Nev.-based Hamilton Co.

Ampersand was spun out of PaineWebber in 1988 under the direction of current managing general partner Richard Charpie. Among its successful exits were Moldflow Corp., which went public in 2000, and Intelligent Controls Inc. of Saco, Maine, which was sold in 2002 to Franklin Electric.

In 2006, the Ampersand Ventures raised a fund worth $212 million, website PE Hub reported.