Venrock raises largest fund in over a decade

Where’s that money? 💸

Venrock

Global | Seed and Series A | Sector Agnostic

Venrock first opened their doors in 1969 as the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller Family. This past week, they closed their largest fund in over a decade, raising $650 million for the tenth fund. With this new capital, Venrock plans to maintain its focus on Seed and Series A investments.

Partner, Bryan Roberts, says they will continue to invest in 8 to 12 companies per year in a variety of sectors.

Exponent Founders Capital

U.S. Canada and Europe | Pre-seed and Seed | Sector Agnostic

Exponent Founders Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City, has announced the launch of its $75 million Fund II. The fund will be focusing on enterprise software, fintech, payments, infrastructure, applied AI, and vertical SaaS.

Founded in 2021 by Charley Ma and Mahdi Raza, the partners bring over a decade of experience at companies like Plaid, Ramp, and Robinhood.

Seedstars Africa Ventures

Africa | Seed and Series A | Sector Agnostic

Seedstars Africa Ventures, a Paris and Nairobi-based VC firm, has secured a $30 million capital commitment from EIB Global, the European Investment Bank.

To launch the fund, Seedstars Africa Ventures collaborated with the Seedstars Group, an emerging markets accelerator, leveraging its infrastructure and market access in Africa. The VC firm plans to make initial investments ranging from $250,000 to $2 million, with follow-on funding of up to $5 million in up to 30 startups. The fund is sector-agnostic but has a preference for startups addressing basic needs such as education, healthcare, and utilities, as well as those enhancing goods, services, and efficiency.

Three partners will lead the fund: Maxime Bouan, Tamim El Zein, and Bruce Nsereko-Lule.

Stepchange

Global | Pre-seed | Climate Tech

Ben Eidelson, a Seattle tech veteran, has launched his inaugural $3 million pre-seed fund. The fund is focused on software-driven solutions to accelerate the deployment of carbon-cutting technologies. They plan to distribute the funds to 20 startups within a relatively fast time frame of 18 months.

Partner, Ben Eidelson, has been actively involved in climate action, publishing a guide for software engineers to pursue climate jobs, angel investing in climate tech startups, and hosting the Climate Papa podcast.

Who’s Hiring? 😎

Psst…firms expanding their investment team are often raising a new fund behind the scenes. 💰

Firms that raised capital in the past few weeks.

January 9th- Baird Capital, Artis Ventures, Partech…

December 18th- Box Group, Cyber Fund, Singular…

December 11th- Collateral Good, BioStar Capital, Intuitive Ventures…

November 29th- NXTP, Twelve Below, Calm Ventures…

November 14th- IBM Ventures, 20Growth, Faction Ventures…

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