fbpx
Subscribe
Menu

There’s A New List Of Micro-VC Funds Circulating On Twitter: Here’s Who’s On It

There’s A New List Of Micro-VC Funds Circulating On Twitter: Here’s Who’s On It

Written by Ann Brown

Aug 29, 2018

Subscribe

 

There’s a list of micro-venture capital funds circulating around Twitter that includes 631 companies and growing.

There is not much information about the list. It appears to have been compiled by venture capitalist, tech advisor and venture blogger Samir Kaji, senior managing director at First Republic Bank, and Hana Yang, a Kauffman Fellow. It lists the name, investor sector, location, investment stage and a link for each of the entries.

They compiled this list for entrepreneurs looking to get funding. But of course, the funding depends on your pitch. “As most Micro-VC’s don’t have the luxury of long and prolific investing track records, managers must convince prospective investors to invest only using limited data points and projections to support a given thesis. One of the key documents in any fundraising is a pitch deck. A well-constructed pitch deck can create an instant visceral engagement with the reader through clear deliverance of a narrative. Having reviewed 350+ venture fund pitch decks over the past few years, very few effectively convey the message the manager intends,” blogged Kaji in Medium.

He added: “Of course, a great deck isn’t a direct guaranteed pathway to an allocation, but it sure does improve the probability of one. It also presents a manager with an opportunity to fine tune/stress a pitch and potentially initiate positive momentum going into an investor call.“

The Micro-VC Funds List (sub-$100MM/seed) contains an interesting mix of VC companies, including Cross Culture Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm founded by seasoned Black investors.

Talent manager Troy Carter, founder of  Atom Factory, co-founded Cross Culture Ventures with Marlon Nichols. Nichols teaches venture capital at Cornell University and was investment director at Intel Capital and lead fund manager at BR Venture Fund.

Cross Culture engages “a diverse network of creatives, entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 executives, and sports professionals to develop strategic partnerships and promote brands,” according to its website:

”At Cross Culture, we partner our portfolio companies and founders that share other companies with similar goals and values. Our network of corporate relationships serve as a playground for young companies looking to gain traction in the marketplace.”

Sian Morson, founder and CEO of Kollective Mobile, is the entrepreneur in residence at Cross Culture.

There are several Black venture capitalists who have not yet made this new list.

The list does include Womens VC Fund II, which makes investments in early-stage (A/B) revenue-generating, high-growth companies led by management teams inclusive of women. It offers first institutional financing round at Series A/B after companies have completed significant angel/seed funding and are in market traction with revenues.

Unshackled is also on the list. This VC helps immigrant founders. “We invest in startups at the earliest stages…currently, we are focused on leading pre-seed rounds,” according to the website.

Sophia Fund, also listed, invests in women-led growth businesses. In business since 1998, Sofia fund finds, invests in, and grows women-led companies. “We work side-by-side with our entrepreneurs, connecting them with resources and taking them–and our co-investors–to profitable exits,” according to its website. So far, Sophia Fund has invested more than $10 million in over 50 companies.

Typical Sophia Fund investments are from $100,000 to $500,000 in $500,000-$2 million rounds of equity. The fund seeks opportunities where ideally there are no more than tow-to-three subsequent funding rounds and exits are within three-to-five years.

Also making the list is Female Founders Fund, which makes small, supporting investments in companies operating in sectors or stages outside of its focus on institutional seed-stage opportunities. They concentrate on female-led startups in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

✖