General Catalyst closes $675M fund to expand presence in Silicon Valley

General Catalyst Partners announced the close of its seventh venture capital fund today, pulling in a hefty $675 million to invest in technology startups.

Boston-based General Catalyst established an office in Silicon Valley three years ago. Fund VII will drive its presence in the area. It brings the firm’s total capital raised over its 13-year history to approximately $3 billion.

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“When we founded General Catalyst in Boston back in 2000, the tech world was falling apart from the collapse of the dot-com bubble,” the firm said in a blog post. “Yet we fervently believed, then and now, in the power of software to transform our lives and make the world a better place.”

2013 was a strong year for venture capital funds thanks to “steadying” economic conditions and a rise in investor confidence, and $675 million is a considerable fund size.

The post also said that the economy is currently experiencing “an era of unbridled technological possibility” and that “there has never been a better time to build a technology business.”

A few major trends driving this momentum are the ubiquity of mobile devices and shifts in enterprise infrastructure as well as industry-wide changes (driven by technology) happening in health care, education, commerce, and other fields.

General Catalyst has made over 100 investments to date, and its portfolio includes notable companies such as Airbnb, SnapChat, Stripe, Venmo, Good Data, Warby Parker, Datalogix, and Kayak.

Its previous fund of $500 million closed in January 2012.