Fidelity Ventures, Fidelity Investments' U.S. venture capital unit, was spun off to the venture capital company's managers, who will manage the investments as subadvisers, Larry Cheng, one of the new firm's four managing partners, said in an interview.
The new independent firm, called Volition Capital, will manage 20 U.S. portfolio companies and co-manage six European companies with Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, an affiliate of Fidelity International, Mr. Cheng said. Fidelity has invested a total of about $400 million in the 26 companies.
The companies are not disclosing details on how much Fidelity is paying Volition to manage the venture capital portfolio, said Michael Shamrell, a Fidelity spokesman, who said Fidelity has no ownership stake in Volition.
Volition Capital will invest in high-growth, founder-owned technology businesses in the U.S. and Canada that generally have between $5 million and $50 million in revenue, Mr. Cheng said.
The three other Volition Capital managing partners are Andy Flaster, Roger Hurwitz and Rob Ketterson, according to a Volition Capital news release.
Mr. Cheng said the spinoff was “really driven by the partners' aspiration to lead an independent firm and to expand our sources of capital to include third parties.”
The sole limited partners in Fidelity Ventures were Fidelity and its affiliates, Mr. Cheng said.
Mr. Shamrell said Fidelity supported the effort of the managers to lead an independent firm.
