Sapphire Ventures LLC has come a long way since spinning out of SAP SE in 2011. The former corporate investment arm, based in Palo Alto, CA, now ranks as one of the most prolific venture funds in the U.S., maintains an in-house market development team focused on mentoring founders and, last but not least, boasts a bigger war chest than ever before.

The latter achievement can be credited in large part to the massive new $1 billion funding haul that it announced this morning. The cash infusion represents the seventh largest raise this year, which is quite impressive considering that venture capitalists are reportedly accumulating cash at the fastest rate since the dot-com bubble.

Technology Crossover Ventures LLC set the bar last month after taking in $2.5 billion for its ninth growth fund, while Northwest Venture Partners LLC and Accel hold the second and third place on the funding chart respectively. Although Sapphire’s pockets may not be as deep as some of its peers, it is nonetheless one of the most respected players in the startup investment world thanks to a consistent track record of making good bets.

The firm has racked up nearly 40 exits, including Box Inc., Square Inc. and Fitbit Inc., since separating from SAP five years ago, including four public offerings in 2015 alone. That put it at the top of PitchBook Data Inc.’s rankings for the year, according to TechCrunch.

Today’s $1 billion raise will enable Sapphire to keep up the pace. About $700 million is slated to be put into a new growth fund while the rest will to be invested in other venture capital firms that focus on supporting early-stage startups. The latter sum comes on top of the $100 million that the firm earmarked for early-stage funds earlier this year.

Sapphire didn’t specify where the capital came from, but past comments from general manager Nino Marakovic (above) may provide some clues. The executive told the financial press in 2014 that he “fully expects” its next fund raising effort will involve investors other than SAP, which has historically been its only backer. Seeing how he also shared his plans to invest in external funds and a number of other objectives that have since materialized too, there’s a good chance that today’s $1 billion raise included outside contributions.

Either way, the cash infusion represents a major milestone for Sapphire. It bumps the firm’s total assets under management past the $2.4 billion mark.

Image via theCUBE