It’s taken Vinny Smith less than eight months to grow Toba Capital into one of the largest venture capital firms in Orange County.
The Irvine-based firm closed its largest deal to date last week, taking stakes in a bundle of 10 companies from undisclosed sellers for some $150 million, according to sources close to the deal.
The companies that now count Toba as a minority owner include Irvine-based security software maker SecureAuth Corp., which got an undisclosed sum that followed a $4.5 million funding round led by Toba late last year.
The other companies are spread across the U.S. and have various specialties, including cloud-services, infrastructure, Web monitoring, and enterprise, automation and security software.
“This substantially increases our assets and portfolio,” said Brinkley Morse, a Toba partner based in Houston.
The buy doubled Toba’s portfolio to 20 companies and more than $200 million in investments, putting it among the largest venture capital firms in OC.
New Rank
Smith, who keeps a low public profile, ranks No. 10 on the Business Journal’s OC’s Wealthiest list, the centerpiece of this week’s issue (Special Report starts on page 41; list starts on page 54).
The former Quest Software Inc. chief executive cashed out some $800 million after Dell Inc. acquired the Aliso Viejo-based business software maker last year for $2.4 billion.
Smith has said he plans to put another $200 million into Toba’s inaugural fund.
He launched the company in December with former colleagues at Quest with an eye on the “next generation of IT infrastructure.”
Morse once served as chief financial officer and managing director of corporate development at Quest, where he led investments and acquisitions. Wilder Ramsey, an associate at Toba, also held corporate development roles at Quest.
Smith has funded Toba investments with his own money and remains hesitant to seek outside capital.
He became Quest’s chief executive and chairman in 1997 and was an avid investor and acquirer while at the helm of the company—one of OC’s largest software makers. He oversaw more than 40 acquisitions there.
Toba got off to a quick start, with two local investments among its 20 portfolio companies and an exit already on the books.
SignNow Inc.
In mid-May, Toba-backed SignNow Inc., a Newport Beach company that provides digital notary and other signature services, was sold for more than $10 million to Campbell-based Barracuda Networks Inc.