SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pioneer Square Labs (“PSL”) announced today the launch of PSL Ventures, a Seattle-based venture capital fund that invests in early-stage technology companies. The $80 million venture fund will invest in companies all over the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The fund also will participate in financings of spinouts from PSL’s affiliated startup studio.
The fund’s limited partner group is comprised of charitable foundations, institutional investment firms, funds of funds, and world-renowned technology industry executives and founders. The fund was oversubscribed and closed at the top end of its target range.
PSL Ventures is led by four managing directors: Greg Gottesman, former managing director of Madrona Venture Group and co-founder of Rover.com; Julie Sandler, former partner of Madrona Venture Group and former Amazon product manager; Mike Galgon, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of aQuantive and longtime angel investor; and Geoff Entress, former venture partner of Voyager Capital and Madrona Venture Group, and prominent Northwest angel investor.
“Our job and our passion is finding the very best entrepreneurs and helping make them successful with capital, talent, a wide range of resources, and every ounce of energy we have,” said Julie Sandler, a PSL Ventures Managing Director. “We are thrilled to launch our inaugural venture fund here at PSL and can’t wait to start putting this capital to work supporting even more great founders.”
The new venture fund is affiliated with PSL’s existing studio, which works with local entrepreneurs to launch venture-scale technology companies. The closure of this first fund for PSL Ventures comes on the heels of a $15 million round led in January by Foundry Group in PSL Studio, which has raised $27.5 million to date from over a dozen leading U.S. venture capital funds and over 50 angel investors. PSL’s studio team of engineers, data scientists, designers, and marketers will also actively support the management teams of PSL Ventures portfolio companies.
“The PSL team not only helps entrepreneurs navigate strategically through the inevitable ups and downs, but they also are incredibly effective working alongside entrepreneurs on pure company building,” said Robert Schulte, CEO and founder of LumaTax, a PSL studio portfolio company. “They roll up sleeves in a way that no other investors can across product development, customer insights, marketing, recruiting, and data science, which provides an unfair early advantage for entrepreneurs.”
PSL Ventures will look to lead and participate in pre-seed, seed, and Series A investments in companies founded by entrepreneurs all over the Pacific Northwest. PSL Ventures does not plan to lead investments in PSL Studio spinouts, though the fund will be able to participate in PSL’s spinout financings when led by other venture firms.
About Pioneer Square Labs
Pioneer Square Labs is a startup studio and venture capital fund. The organization partners with founders at the earliest stages to build market-defining technology companies, primarily based in the Pacific Northwest. For more information, visit www.psl.com.