Animal Capital To Launch Gen. Z-Focused Venture Capital Fund

Animal Capital

Social media stars Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson and Noah Beck, together with partners Marshall Sandman and Michael Gruen, have launched Animal Capital, a Los Angeles, CA-based Gen. Z-focused venture capital fund.

The fund will focus on consumer and financial technology, health and wellness and media.

Sandman, a former strategy, venture and business development executive for WarnerMedia and previously an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, and Gruen, co-founder of Talent X, a talent and entertainment management company for digital creatives, will serve as managing partners, with Richards, Johnson and Beck as operating partners.

Animal Capital will provide all the services of a traditional venture fund, including fundraising, scaling companies into larger enterprises and providing go-to-market strategies. Additionally, Richards, Johnson, and Beck along with their broad network, will leverage their broad reach to tap into purchasing decisions of an entirely new generation of consumers.

Over the past year, the firm’s team has invested in several startups, including:

  • Breakr, a platform that connects artists and influencers;
  • Step, a banking app that helps teens build a credit history and learn about financial literacy; and
  • Super Coffee, a sugar-free, enhanced coffee line that has attracted celebrity investors such as Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez.  

Beyond its core investment team, Animal Capital has assembled an advisory team that includes: 

  • Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch; 
  • Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, former Google, Amazon and StubHub executive; 
  • Jana Messerschmidt of Lightspeed Venture Partners and #ANGELS; 
  • Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of Winklevoss Capital; and 
  • Jason Levine of NewFlow Partners.

FinSMEs

01/04/2021