Wednesday, May 25, 2005

NGEN Has First Close of $150M Fund

Santa Barbara-based NGEN Partners, an investment firm focused on advanced materials, said yesterday that it has had a first close of a new $150M fund. The new fund, NGEN Partners Fund II, will also focus on material science investments and investments of between $2 to $8M. CalPERS and CalSTRS led the round of funding, which also included The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Cycad Group, the Glenn Foundation, Siemens Venture Capital, and Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. The company also said that it had return investments from strategic investors Air Products, BASF, Bayer MaterialScience, DuPont, DSM and Henkel.