Venture capital firms have encountered plenty of headwinds in recent months, with fundraising totals falling off a cliff. But Voyager Capital, a Seattle venture firm with offices in Portland and Menlo Park, is hoping that things improve in 2012.
Voyager today filed documents with the SEC to raise up to $125 million, marking what would be the firm’s fourth fund since it was founded in 1997.
We’ve reached out to the partners at the firm for comment, but it is customary that VCs take a low-profile approach while raising cash.
Voyager raised its third fund at $107 million in 2007, backing companies such as Ontela, Yapta, SEMDirector and others.
Previous investments by Voyager include aQuantive, which sold to Microsoft for $6 billion, and Attenex, which sold to FTI Consulting for $88 million. It primarily focuses on early-stage clean tech, digital media, software and wireless companies
The firm is led by Bill McAleer, Enrique Godreau, Erik Benson, Curtis Feeny and Daniel Ahn.
It will be interesting to see how Voyager performs on the fundraising trail. After all, it has been a tough road for many VC firms who’ve contemplated raising more money.
According to the National Venture Capital Association, 52 VC raised $1.72 billion during the third quarter. That was a 53 percent decrease by dollar commitments and a four percent decline by number of funds compared to the third quarter of 2010. In fact, the third quarter marked the lowest amount raised in a quarter since the third quarter of 2003.
UPDATE: Voyager’s McAleer declined to comment.
