Buzzy mega-rounds and high-profile IPOs most often dominate headlines. But many of the ones companies were once early-stage and scrapping to raise the best seed round.
Today, Chicago Ventures , a VC firm that often leads seed-stage rounds, announced the close of third fund — one particular $63 million vehicle any it’s already put to operate.
Chicago Ventures (which located in Chicago, where similar? ) has a very express set of criteria when it seeks back companies. For one, which will save sites, it not only wants to to come back seed-stage startups, it consistently leads those rounds. An firm is targeting twenty investments out of its hot fund with an average test out size of $1. 5 million dollars to $2 million.
As evidence, been so far backed 11 providers out of this third fund, the leading 10 of those rounds. Their startups include CognitOps , CoPilot , Forager , Interior Define , NOCD , OneRail , PreFix and Ureeka .
The firm also is features of investing in companies located removed from traditional hotspots of Silicon Valley and New York. Six of its most recent investments were present in Chicago-based startups, two in Austin (where it recently cracked an office), one in Holiday, Florida, and one in Los Angeles.
Chicago Ventures prides alone in identifying, and assisting, “overlooked” companies. It was made in 2012 under the premise that enduring companies could be built “anywhere” and not restricted to “a few select area codes. ”
“Only a handful of funds consistently lead seed rounds. Tag-along, momentum-based investing may be the norm, ” the firm said in a statement. “The industry’s attention still converges on industries and geographies with rich histories of innovation. We fill these gaps. We lead seed rounds before it’s obvious, and serve as active, operationally-involved partners within a company’s earliest days. We invest off the coasts. ”
Since its inception, the firm’s portfolio organizations have raised more than $1. 5 billion in follow-on capital. Seventeen of those companies are now valued over $100 million, including Cameo , business pc software marketplace G2 and logistics software company project44 .
Chicago Ventures closed its second fund in 2016 — which included a $60 million main fund and a $6 million sidecar fund. The firm opted not to go the sidecar route now.
In conjunction with the new fund, Chicago Ventures also announced that it has promoted Peter Christman and Lindsay Knight to partner. Christman leads investments in companies rebuilding old-line enterprise workflows and consumer products expanding access to care and financial well-being. Knight leads the firm’s post-investment operations, including talent, business development and functional most readily useful practice sharing.
Chicago Ventures has also named Jackie DiMonte to the team as a new partner. DiMonte comes from Hyde Park Venture Partners, where she led early-stage, enterprise investments. An engineer by training, DiMonte is based in Austin, where Chicago Ventures has made 10 investments since 2015.
In 2020, the dollars invested into seed-stage startups in the United States had an up-and-down year that TechCrunch explored in this piece . Also, the pattern of rising seed-check sizes seen in prior years continued, despite the tumultuous business climate.
