Nov 30 (Reuters) - Sapphire Ventures said on Tuesday it has raised $2 billion across two funds in its largest capital raise, lifting the venture capital firm's total assets under management to nearly $9 billion.

Founded in 1996 and spun out of software giant SAP in 2011, Sapphire's investments are focused in enterprise technology companies that have reached growth stages.

The closing of the two funds - Sapphire Fund VI and Opportunity Fund III - comes on the heels of a $1.7 billion capital raise which Sapphire closed in February across multiple funds.

The firm has already started investing out of the two funds and expects the capital to last through the end of next year, after which it plans to kick off another fund, Nino Marakovic, chief executive officer and partner, told Reuters in an interview.

Companies are looking to capitalize on abundant opportunity due to early stages of a digital transformation wave on a scale never seen before, Marakovic said.

"The companies are growing faster than we've ever seen in the last two decades of investing," Marakovic added. "In fact, there's no scarcity of capital. If anything, these companies are struggling to hire quickly enough."

Besides investing, the firm is using the extra capital to grow its team and expand its European presence including more offices besides its hub in London.

Sapphire's global portfolio includes 165 companies and the firm has invested roughly $1 billion this year.

It has seen more than 70 exits through 45 acquisitions and 30 initial public offerings, including that of work management company Monday.com Ltd, business payments company AvidXchange Holdings Inc and direct-to-consumer DNA testing firm 23andMe Holding Co, all of which went public this year. (Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)