Evolution Equity Partners, a private equity firm founded by former AVG executives have raised a cybersecurity focused investment fund. The $125 million debut fund will make investments in cybersecurity and next generation enterprise software and services in North America, Europe, and Israel.
New York-based Evolution Equity was founded by investor and technology entrepreneurs Richard Seewald and Dennis Smith, who manage the firm, and are joined by partners Karel Obluk (former CTO of AVG Technologies) and J.R. Smith (former CEO of AVG Technologies). The firm held its first close for this fund in 2015 on $70 million.
The fund has since invested in a handful of companies including AVG Technologies, Cognitive Security, OpenDNS, Carbon Black, Onapsis, Security Scorecard, DFLabs, Fortscale, LogPoint, Eperi, and Panaseer among others.
The firm says its investment size ranges from $5-25 million.
“We see tremendous opportunity in Europe, North America and Israel alike where management teams of rapidly growing software companies seek investors that can help with international expansion,” said managing partner Richard Seewald. Evolution is expected to add another three companies to its existing portfolio with the final close of this fund.
Known investors in the fund include Cisco Investments, The European Investment Fund (EIF), Witelo Fund (PZU Insurance Group), and Alpha Associates. The investor base is made up of institutional investors, family offices and technology entrepreneurs from the United States and Europe.