OpenView Raises $200 Million for Business Software Investments

OpenView Venture Partners, a Boston-based investing firm, raised $200 million for its third fund as it seeks out early-stage business-software companies.

The fund was “significantly oversubscribed” and exceeded the $150 million the firm expected to bring in, OpenView said today in a statement. OpenView has about $445 million in capital under management.

Rather than competing with Silicon Valley’s top firms for the hottest social-media and consumer Internet deals, OpenView looks for startups in other regions that sell software to businesses. Of its 18 current portfolio companies, only Mashery Inc. is in the San Francisco Bay Area. Investments elsewhere include Balihoo Inc., a marketing automation company in Boise, Idaho, and Acronis Inc., an online-backup service near Boston.

OpenView was founded in 2006 by Scott Maxwell, who was previously a managing director at Insight Venture Partners. As Insight started focusing on more mature companies, Maxwell created OpenView to fund younger startups.

None of the firm’s companies have gone public yet, and the only one to be acquired was Loyalty Lab Inc., which Tibco Software Inc. (TIBX) bought in 2010.