Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Kepha Partners outlines $100M funding plans

By Galen Moore

Kepha Partners LLC, the so-far secretive startup VC firm based in Waltham, will officially announce the closing of its first fund today, valued at $100 million. Mass High Tech first reported Kepha’s fundraising activity in November.  That report, based on federal regulatory documents, pegged the Kepha fund at $94.7 million.

Kepha’s founder, Jo Tango, is a former partner at Highland Capital Partners. He left to start the new firm in 2006 and later brought on CFO and general partner Ed Hamilton. Investments so far include mobile platform provider Azuki Systems Inc., data migration company AutoVirt Inc. and stealthy travel services startup Byledge Inc.

According to Kepha’s website, the new firm seeks to work with the “true entrepreneur.” In an e-mail last week, Tango explained the meaning of the phrase. A true entrepreneur is a “missionary” as opposed to a “mercenary,” he wrote. “Knowing a startup founder well before investing is critical. The founder sets the culture/norms/processes early in a company’s life and it greatly influences how a company will do.”

Tango, a Yale graduate, was a general partner at Highland for nearly nine years. During that time, his investments included Bit9 Inc., ExaGrid Systems Inc., StreamBase Systems Inc., Vertica Systems Inc. and Virtual Iron Software Inc.

Hamilton was previously general partner at Dover Medical Ventures and chief financial officer at North Bridge Venture Partners.