Vertex Ventures US (VVUS), a Palo Alto, CA-based venture capital firm, raised its third $200m fund.
The fund will lead or co-lead Seed and Series A investments in SaaS and infrastructure software startups. Initial investments range from $500k to $10m to support companies as they scale to growth stages and beyond. The firm invests in only a few new companies each year, allowing it to concentrate time and capital on a small portfolio. The new fund follows VVUS’s $150m sophomore Fund 2 which closed in 2019, and invested in 18 early-stage technology companies, of which 75% raised one or more follow-on financing rounds.
Led by Insik Rhee, Jonathan Heiliger, and newly-promoted general partner Sandeep Bhadra, the team of former founders and operators combine their collective experiences to coach founders, recruit talent and improve their odds of success.
Bhadra joined the firm in 2017 and has led early investments in companies such as Tulip and Hasura, both of which announced $100M Series C rounds in 2021. Rhee and Heiliger are Silicon Valley veterans who reunited in 2015 to form VVUS following stints at Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital, respectively. Before turning to venture capital, the duo were founders and senior operating executives at Opsware, Kiva Software, Couchbase, Global Crossing, and Facebook.
The firm also expanded its investing and platform teams over the past year. Megan Reynolds recently joined the investment team as Principal. She will work with a larger canvas of companies across North America and Europe.
VVUS also added a Director of Talent, Raluca Mackey, to work with companies as the interim Head of People to build a personalized and solid framework for talent and recruiting. Finally, the firm launched its VVUS Fellows program to provide counsel to founders on functional domains such as growth, finance, communications and HR.
To date, there are 50 companies across the US and Europe in the VVUS portfolio, with over 40% of Fund 2 investments being founded outside the US.
FinSMEs
27/09/2022