The Up Round #10
The Memo
Welcome to the 10th issue of The Up Round. As a reminder, this is a "round-up" of relevant news and resources for VCs building a best-in-class firm. Expect it to land in your inbox every other weekend.
As mentioned in our previous issue, I was working on a rebrand of Open Investor and some other changes that will allow me to better share resources and content. Welcome to The Multiple!
Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be transferring all our legacy content to our Substack while also publishing a host of resources that I’ve been working on at themultiple.vc 😁.
Moving on, apologies for being “off schedule” but I’ve worked hard to ensure to include the relevant headlines since the last issue in an effort to play catch up. It feels like the common refrain around VC relates to the challenge of committing to or raising new funds amid a rising rate environment. It’s tough to justify when one can earn a risk-free return of 5%!
Best,
Santosh
X’s & O’s of Firm Building
🎤 Venture Unlocked: Building Competitive Moats in VC with Ben Lerer and Graham Brown. (link). I’d in particular recommend paying attention to the sections on maintaining operational discipline, deciding to make an exception, and the decision to launch a select fund off the back of the seed fund.
LP Quarterly Update Template Courtesy of Nichole Wischoff (link). This is one of the resources we are working on compiling here at The Multiple!
📽️ Slow Ventures on the State of VC in 2023 (link). This is a dense 84 slides long but worth a skim through. In particular, I agree with the comments about the unicorn factories, AI, and financial optionality.
Fund Debuts
welovefounders Launches €35M B2B SaaS Fund (link). The fund focuses on B2B SaaS startups but is sector-agnostic, investing from €500k-€3M per company.
Ritual Capital Raises $38M Fund I (link). The fund invests in infrastructure and developer tools, SaaS companies, and select consumer ideas. Fund I will focus on writing checks around $300k as part of a larger round.
RevRoad Ventures Debuts with $61M Fund (link). Setup alongside venture services firm, RevRoad, RevRoad Capital has closed the largest fund that operates between the Coasts in 2023. The fund will focus on seed companies in Utah and is generalist in its focus.
Shield Capital Closes $186M Fund I (link). The fund was 55% oversubscribed and will focus on early stage startups in AI, space, autonomy, and cybersecurity.
Other Fund Stuff
La Famiglia Joins General Catalyst (link). In a strategic move, La Famiglia has merged with General Catalyst as part of a broader strategic maneuver by the latter- “We look forward to learning from them [La Famiglia] and using their model and brand as the foundation for a global seed program we plan to launch in 2024.”
Grand Ventures Closes $50M Fund II (link). The fund will lead seed-stage investments in startups solving problems facing the fintech, DevOps and supply chain sectors.
Alpaca Closes Fund II at $78M (link). Fund III will see Alpaca continue to focus on seed investments with checks between $1-2M targetting a portfolio of 30 companies over the next 3-4 years. Alongside Fund III, Alpaca has launched a real estate PE platform as a nod to it’s prior life as Corigin Ventures (the VC arm of NYC developer, Corigin).
Breega Launches €150M Fund III with a Focus on UK (link). After backing French unicorn Exotec, Breega has it’s sights set on expanding into UK with up to 30% of it’s new fund committed to seed founds in the region. The fund will write checks between €500k-€3M in 30 startups across software, fintech, deeptech, the future of work and climate tech.
Mercury Fund’s Fifth Fund Closes at $160M (link). The fifth fund saw both existing and new LPs in the central US join to benefit from Mercury’s focus on investing and support SaaS and data platforms in non-costal tech hubs.
Fuse Closes $250M Fund II to Focus on Pacific Northwest Startups (link). Fund II will back 30-35 companies and co-lead rounds with check sizes of $1-10M.
At One Ventures Raises $375M Fund (link). Led by former astrophysicist, Tom Chi, At One’s second fund was 50% oversubscribed and reflects the on-going interest in early stage climate tech.
Dawn Capital Closes $700M for a Pair of Funds (link). Focused on enterprise software, Dawn V at $620M will focus on early stage venture while the $80M follow-on fund, Dawn Opportunities III will back select portfolio winners at the growth stage. This is the largest European SaaS fund raised to date
Greylock 17 Closes at $1B (link). Greylock 17 will focus on Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A founders in enterprise and consumer software. Additionally, the firm announced Greylock Edge which sounds like an accelerator program of sorts that is open to doing uncapped notes!
Kaszek’s Newest Fund Has $1B Ready for LatAm’s Tech Rebound (link). The fund will be split roughly 50/50 between early-stage and late-stage growth investments. The firm is founded by former Mercado Libre executives.
Atomico Raises $1.1B for Venture and Growth Investments (link). Regulatory filings show that $600M will be focused on venture investments with the balance of $750M for growth.
Talent Tracker
Greycroft Shakes Up Partner Ranks (link). On the back of raising a fresh set of funds 40% below the original target, Greycroft has parted ways with Will Szczerbiak and Ellie Wheeler as it refocuses away from fintech and consumer investments.
Michael Cichowski Joines FTV Capital as Partner (link). Cichowski joines from Aquiline and will focus on payments and financials services investments at FTV.
LP Ledger
Saudi PIF Has Invested in Only One European Fund (link). PIF’s LP investment arm, Sanabil disclosed that it invested in Swedish venture firm, Northzone earlier this year. The disclosure is part of the Saudi effort to improve transparency as it’s influence in the technology sphere grows. Northzone is the sole EU fund alongside the likes of Founders Fund, a16z, and Iconiq, among others.
Industry Ventures Banks $1.7B Across Two Strategies (link). The lion share of funds raised will focus on it’s secondary strategy (providing liquidity solutions for existing venture LPs) with $260M targeted at direct investing.