Norwest, the global multi-stage investment firm, has closed Norwest 18 at $4 billion, the largest fund in its 65 year history. The firm announced the close on November 12. The fund brings Norwest’s total capital under management to $18 billion and will support venture and growth equity investments across technology, healthcare and consumer companies in the United States, India and Israel.
The predecessor fund, Norwest 17, launched in April 2024 at $3 billion. Since that launch the firm says it has made more than 87 investments and worked with more than 30 portfolio companies through liquidity events, including public listings. Norwest has invested in more than 750 companies since 1961 and currently partners with more than 275 companies across its venture and growth equity portfolio, including Babylist, Gong, Monogram Health, OfBusiness, VAST Data, Vuori and YipitData.
Senior managing partner Jeff Crowe told TechCrunch the new fund leans into artificial intelligence, naming financial infrastructure, physical AI, voice AI, agentic cybersecurity, industrial technology and aerospace among the areas it expects to fund, alongside healthcare and healthcare AI. Norwest is financed exclusively by Wells Fargo, according to TechCrunch’s reporting, an unusual single-LP structure for a firm of this scale.
The firm also said it is expanding the support around the capital, doubling its senior advisor network and adding operating programmes for portfolio companies, on the argument that companies are staying private longer and need more than money to scale across markets.