(Corrects size of Nest acquisition to $3.2 billion in fifth graf)
By Sarah McBride
SAN FRANCISCO, June 27 (Reuters) - Venture fund Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers filed to raise two new funds totaling $1.2 billion, showing scaled-back ambitions compared with previous funds.
The new funds, an early-stage growth fund of $450 million known as KPCB XVI and a later-stage fund of $750 million known as KPCB Digital Growth, contrast with the $525 million KPCB XV, raised two years ago, and the $1 billion inaugural Digital Growth fund, raised in 2010.
The new funds come at a time when a rash of competitors are clocking up outsized gains due to early investments in companies such as Facebook and Twitter, which Kleiner came to late in the game. At the same time, many investors in venture funds are coming to believe that more modest funds have an easier time making big gains than do larger funds.
In the last few years, Kleiner Perkins has made an effort to reenergize itself, bringing in new partners such as Mike Abbott, formerly vice president of engineering at Twitter, and Mary Meeker, the renowned Wall Street analyst, who leads the digital growth fund.
The firm's recent investments have included companies such as Lending Club, payments service Square, and thermostat maker Nest Labs, which Google bought earlier this year for $3.2 billion.
The lead partners in KPCB XVI are Abbott, John Doerr, Randy Komisar, Ted Schlein and Beth Seidenberg -- a smaller group than previously. For KPCB Digital Growth, lead partners are Doerr, Meeker and Schlein.
The filings, made Friday to the Securities and Exchange Commission, reflect amounts that in the venture business sometimes grow beyond the numbers listed.
Last year, rival Sequoia Capital raised $553 million for its Sequoia Capital XIV.
(Reporting by Sarah McBride; Editing by Leslie Adler)