CMGI Starts B2B Venture Fund

CMGI Inc. Monday launched a new venture fund, worth up to $1 billion, focused exclusively on business-to-business investments.

The new fund branches off of CMGI’s (CMGI) current @Ventures fund, of which nearly two-thirds of the companies are business-to-business, the firm said. Companies in the B2B @Ventures Fund include Chemdex (CMDX), Silknet (SILK), Promedix.com (now a division of
Chemdex), Intelligent/Digital, BizBuyer.com and OneCore.com.

To be managed by the current team of @Ventures partners, the CMGI @Ventures B2B Fund will have CMGI as its sole limited investor, the company said.

“This is a natural extension of our expertise and allows us the latitude of deeper investment into the B2B arena,” said David Wetherell, CMGI chairman and CEO. “We continue to believe that the B2B market will be a major growth sector of the Internet economy, and one which we are poised to further leverage within the CMGI Network.”