Lawrence Aragon and Iris Dorbian

Tapping into growing interest in start-ups based in the Midwest, Heartland Ventures has closed its second fund at $52m.

EQT Ventures III is focused on European and North American early-stage tech start-ups.

Biofire, which is making a gun that can only be discharged by its owner, has raised $14 million in Series A funding.

The San Francisco-based firm is the seventh VC to raise or announce new climate fund in the past four months.

The Reston, Virginia-based firm raised about $159m for its second fund in 2018.

The new vehicle is the firm's largest to date and twice the size of its previous fund raised three years ago.

Fund III raised $126m from about 70 LPs, including Bank of America, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Cambridge Associates, Ford Foundation and Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

Sequoia’s success runs counter to the overall fundraising trend for venture funds based in greater China (defined as China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), has been on the decline for the past few years.