Ridge Ventures, a San Francisco, CA-based venture capital firm that backs early-stage enterprise startups, closed its fourth fund, at $130M.
The fund was backed by institutional investors including foundations, endowments, funds of funds, insurance companies and prominent family offices; technology executives from leading companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Salesforce, and Oracle; and dozens of founders from across the firm’s portfolio.
Ridge Ventures’ latest fund will be managed by the firm’s expanding investment team, led by Alex Rosen (early investor in Krux, MindMeld, Minted, and Fastly), with Pat Kenealy (former CEO at IDG), Gil Penchina (angel investor in Ripple, Paypal, LinkedIn, Cruise, and Dollar Shave Club), Ben Metcalfe (co-founder of WP Engine, product at Uber), and April Yang (Codeverse and McKinsey).
The firm will continue to invest in enterprise companies with software designed to change the end-user experience, with a focus on AI, analytics and data, SaaS, infrastructure, martech, and HR tech. Also, Ridge will continue to back select consumer companies that reinforce its enterprise thesis.
Portfolio companies will continue to benefit from access to the firm’s 75-member-strong CXO network, with direct access to Fortune 500 CMOs and CIOs for customer development and market feedback.
The firm has invested in such companies as Braze, Discord, Fastly, Minted, Safegraph, ThirdLove, Trifacta, and YouEarnedIt and exited Krux (acquired for $800M), MindMeld (acquired for $125M) and NextGames (IPO).
FinSMEs
25/07/2018