Columbia Capital, since 1989, has been one of the premier private equity funds and citizens in the Mid-Atlantic. People have often wanted Columbia to be more than it is and have come away disappointed when Columbia sticks consistently to its knitting—-communications broadly defined and usually major or “disruptive” (the industry word-of-the-month) companies. Industry specific means you live by the sword and die by the sword. Columbia Capital produced the fuel that launched a governor of Virginia. But it has also had some lean years when no amount of smart investing can turn an industry around. Recently, we were surprised to see a couple reports of Columbia Capital announcing a first closing on around $230M for Fund V. Fund IV was from 2005 and raised $560M. This new Fund V has a target of $650M. We are surprised because the old rule of thumb for private equity funds was that you did not announce a first closing until you were well over halfway to your target. You might be struggling to get to the goal line, but the closer you are when you announce that first closing, the more likely you are to cajole those fence sitters down and into the target tally. $230M is way short of $650M. The primary reason you announce a first closing is because you cannot access the committed funds until you arrange an official closing and bind the limited partners to sending in capital as needed. In other words, without an official closing, you can’t make any investments with the new money. Maybe we are missing something here and maybe Columbia is well on its way to hitting its target. Or maybe this is just another sign of the times, an admission that this is one of the worst fundraising years in recent venture history, that the number of venture funds and firms across America is shrinking rapidly, that traditional sources of funds are committing few dollars to private equity, and that most funds (and maybe including Columbia) have not delivered returns in recent years that get anywhere close to satisfying limited partners. If that’s the case, then you just have to make do and be glad that you are a survivor.
