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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- BA Venture Partners said Wednesday that it's renaming itself Scale Venture Partners as the firm launches a $400 million fund that's stepping away from its former parent, Bank of America Corp.

Bank of America (BAC), which was the majority owner of BA Venture Partners, has taken a berth as a minority investor in Scale Venture Partners' new fund.

Bank of America Chief Investment Officer Ted McCaffrey said that the conglomerate plans to shift its focus to its middle-market private-equity unit, BA Capital Investors, as it sheds its majority role in both Scale Venture Partners and its European venture business, Argan Capital, which was formerly called BA Capital Partners Europe.

"The bank has more of a focus on a universal bank concept and both [Argan] and [Scale Venture] really had independent brand names," he added. "They never got any deals from the bank and weren't integrated with the bank. The bank is to have a more integrated private-equity business. That's not the way these groups could function."

The move by Bank of America was initially floated in October, when LBO Wire reported that the sale of the European business was expected to bring in about $500 million.

The managing director of Scale Venture Partners, Kate Mitchell, said that the Foster City, Calif.-based venture firm had planned to bring in other shareholders outside of Bank of America since launching its first fund in 2000.

"We felt the fruit had ripened and it was ready to move onto its next phase," she commented. "They've been a great supporter of this process."

No names of the funds other investors have been released yet, Mitchell added.

The fund has taken part in a variety of initial public offerings, including Somaxon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (SOMX) and Omniture Inc. (OMTR) last year -- part of a busy 2006 that included eight exits and 29 financings totaling more than $90 million.

Looking ahead at Scale Venture Partners, Mitchell said that the fund will continue to work to identify market opportunities "that are just at the inflection point" to maximize returns.

The fund still plans to continue its "thesis-based investing," the tack of studying subsectors and identifying companies to court even before they've begun their venture fund-raising.

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