The early-stage investor’s US$70-million fourth core fund will back startups anywhere in the world in the crypto, climate and health-care sectors, as well as those with marketplace or software-as-a-service business models. Its US$30-million second opportunities fund will participate in growth rounds for existing portfolio companies. Limited partners include the returning Northleaf Capital Partners, HarbourVest Partners, Kensington Capital Partners, and Invesco and Plenty of Fish founder Markus Frind’s family office. New backers include RBC and about 10 entrepreneurs in whose firms Version One has previously invested. (The Logic)
Talking point: The new funds came “a little bit earlier than we had originally planned,” said general partner Boris Wertz, citing interest from the LPs as well as an accelerated pace of investments over the last 15 months. Version One made four investments in April 2020, just after the pandemic hit North America. “We didn’t really lose a step,” he said, while other, larger funds took longer to start investing again. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen more interesting entrepreneurs [and] opportunities, [or] more follow-on action in the existing portfolio.” The firm aims to make 25 to 30 investments of between $1 million and $2 million on average out of the core fund. Version One has already deployed the $25 million from its first follow-on fund, announced in March 2020, across five firms, including Toronto chatbot company Ada, Vancouver NFT platform Dapper Labs and Edmonton software firm Jobber. Over three-fifths of Version One’s current investees are headquartered in the U.S.; general partner Angela Tran is based in San Francisco.