NEA breaks $2B for its latest venture capital fund

New Enterprise Associates, Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firm, has raised another $1 billion for its newest fund — its 13th — bumping the fund’s total size so far to $2.15 billion. That’s an impressive feat in today’s economic climate. The target for the fund is $2.5 billion, lowered from the $3 billion initially posed to the firm’s limited partners last year, reports VentureWire.

Based in Menlo Park, Calif., NEA raised its last fund, which successfully hit the $2.5 billion mark, in 2006. The recent fund had a first close of $1.2 billion in January, but has since raised funds from partners including the Teacher Retirement System of Texas ($150 million), the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System and the Indiana State Teacher’s Retirement Fund. The latter two kicked in $15 million each.

NEA invests in a fairly broad array of companies at all stages across the energy, consumer technology, health care and information technology sectors. It also supports companies in India and China, in addition to the U.S. Some of its better known startups are Bloom Energy, Gridpoint, Serious Materials, 23andMe, Loopt and Xoom.