In what might signal a great coming year in startups, 2017 was a huge fundraising year for venture capital firms, with an upsurge in new investments and new firms, approximately $1.4B raised across 16 funds. Below is a list of all of the 10 largest (by way of funds raised) new LA area venture capital funds announced in the last year or so or who have made their first investments in 2017, as well as details on the firms, including investment managers, styles, and activity.
Upfront Ventures
Fund Size
$400M (Fund VI)
Managing Partners
Yves Sisteron, Mark Suster
Partners
Greg Bettinelli, Kobie Fuller, Kara Nortman, Kevin Zhang
Investment Interests
Seed or A-Round investments with a median check sizeof $2.8M
Portfolio Companies
90+ including FabFitFun, Factual
Greycroft Ventures
Fund Size
$250M
LA Partners
Dana Settle, Mark Terbeek, Dylan Pearce, Paul Bricault, Jon Goldman
Investment Interests
Consumer Internet, eCommerce, enterprise software, cloud computing, fintech, adtech
Portfolio Companies
120+ including Plated, Scopely
Arrowroot Capital
Fund Size
$177M growth fund (Arrowroot Capital II, L.P.)
Managing Partner
Matthew Safaii
Investment Interests
Enterprise software companies. The company says it makes investments of between $5M to $25M in companies, and is looking to fill the “funding gap” between early stage venture capital and larger traditional growth equity firms looking to make larger investments
Notable Portfolio Companies
hookit, ICIX
Pontifax AgTech Fund
Fund Size
$130M
Managing Directors
BenBelldegrun, Phil Erlanger
Investment Interests
Revenue-generating businesses with proven technologies that improve the productivity, sustainability and efficiency of the agriculture supply chain
Bryant Stibel
Fund Size
$100M
Managing Directors
Jeff Stibel, Kobe Bryant
Investment Interests
Focus on the convergence of technology, media and data (TMD), as well as in industries such as sports and wellness
Notable Portfolio Companies
FocusMotion, Scopely
Core Innovation Capital
Fund Size
$100M
Managing Directors
Arjan Schutte, Kathleen Utecht
Investment Interests
Fintech
Notable Portfolio Companies
Mosaic, NerdWallet
Wavemaker Ventures
Fund Size
$66M (Southeast Asia Investment Fund)
Limited Partners
Temasek Holdings, Tim Draper, World Bank’s International Finance Corp.
Investment Interests
Business-to-business investments, software, the cloud, hardware, and other similar areas
Portfolio Companies
250+ including ShipHawk, StyleHaul
Okapi Ventures
Fund Size
$60M (Okapi Ventures III)
Managing Directors
Marc Averitt, Sharon Stevenson, Jeff Bocan, John Waller
Investment Interests
Seedand early-stage companies in the technology and healthcare IT sectors and has also invested in medical device and medical diagnostic startups
Notable Portfolio Companies
BabyList, CrowdStrike
Akatsuki Entertainment Fund
Fund Size
$50M
Managing Director
Tomoya Ogawa
Investment Interests
Augmented reality startups
Fika Ventures
Fund Size
$40M
Managing Directors
Eva Ho, Tx Zhuo
Investment Interests
Data, artificial intelligence-enabled technologies, and automation being applied to enterprise software, financial services, marketplace, and digital health
Notable Portfolio Companies
Bowery, PolicyGenius
