By Joshua Franklin

NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters) - Veteran Wall Street dealmaker Chinh Chu and investment firm Neuberger Berman on Thursday increased to $360 million the amount they are looking to raise in an initial public offering for a new blank-check company, according to people familiar with the matter.

Chu and Neuberger Berman had originally targeted a raise of $300 million for CC Neuberger Principal Holdings I, but increased that by 20% due to an order book that was close to three times oversubscribed, the sources said.

The sources requested anonymity as the matter is private. CC Capital, Chu's investment firm, and Neuberger Berman declined to comment.

The vehicle is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which raises a blind pool of funds in an IPO to acquire a company. CC Neuberger Principal has said it will target a business in the financial, technology and business services sectors.

It is the first in a series of up to six SPACs between Chu and Neuberger, which is currently raising a fund to invest specifically in these SPACs, one of the sources said. An affiliate of Koch Industries is anchoring the fund.

Neuberger Berman has agreed to invest $200 million in a private placement concurrent with the transaction the SPAC pursues, according to regulatory filings.

The fund will also provide $300 million in backstop financing that will cover the risk of investors taking their cash out of the SPAC ahead of a proposed transaction, a dynamic that can sometimes make sellers wary about doing a deal with a SPAC.

CC Neuberger Principal was due to price its IPO later on Thursday at $10 per share, the standard rate in a SPAC listing, with the stock set to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "PCPL".

It will be the third SPAC for Chu, who worked on some of Blackstone Group's biggest and leveraged buyouts before leaving the firm in 2015.

The deal comes after Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc Chairman Chamath Palihapitiya on Tuesday raised $720 million for a new SPAC, also 20% more than its original target.

Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities and UBS are the joint book-running managers on the IPO.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)