SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Day One Ventures, the early-stage venture capital firm specializing in spearheading communications for its portfolio companies, has closed its first fund at nearly $20M. The firm is led by Masha Drokova, an investor, entrepreneur, communications executive, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree.
Day One Ventures publicly launched in January 2018 and since then:
- Has invested in a few dozen companies, with more than 30% of them completing follow-on funding rounds.
- Its portfolio includes founders from over 20 countries, 18 female founders and 32 founders with previous successful exits.
- Has had three exits through M&A: Acquired.io, Feastly, and lvl5.
Day One Ventures has invested in the likes of Superhuman, Atoms, Reby, Truebill, FutureFamily, AnyRoad, Nebia, Yumi, Pillar, Zestful and many others. The fund focuses on investing in areas like applications of machine learning, fintech, marketplaces, consumer products, impact, health, mental health, and tech for GenZ. It also invests in emerging tech companies including quantum technologies and space. Day One Ventures has a specific eye on impact as it believes the companies giving power back to people, solving environmental problems, and radically reshaping outdated industries like education or healthcare represent some of the biggest investment opportunities of the next decade.
In the current environment, the best startups have no shortage of investment offers, causing them to look for more than just capital. This has given rise to a new generation of venture capital firms whose unique value-add enables them to get into the most competitive deals. Day One Ventures utilizes a hands-on PR approach, helping companies shape their story, develop communication strategies, and secure coverage in top tier media as well as help with partnerships, work with influencers and events.
Through effective communications, startups are proven to:
- Capture highly relevant and valuable users with zero marginal acquisition cost from the media outlets.
- Put themselves in front of later-stage prospective investors.
- Improve the success of recruiting, hiring, and retaining top talent for their teams.
“It's hard to imagine the success of companies like Robinhood, Away or Airbnb without a clear, transparent and effective communications strategy. We created a fund structure that aligns with our founders’ interests and enables us to strategically execute our companies’ communications to expedite their growth,” said Drokova, who now 29, immigrated to the US in her mid 20’s. “The major bottleneck when working with PR agencies is they need time that they don’t have to thoroughly understand their clients’ business. Our communications framework alleviates this because before we invest, our team spends hundreds of hours learning each business inside and out. We’re the only fund in the U.S. that couples capital investment and communications as our main strategic value, which has allowed us to offer founders and the most impactful companies something no other fund can.”
When asked about his experience working with Day One Ventures, Damian Langere, CEO of Domuso said, “Day One Ventures has been one of our most helpful investors. When they invest in a company, they truly back the founders by actively providing not just communications expertise, but results. Since working with Day One, we've received high impact press coverage, gained access to top-tier professional events, and made new connections that have accelerated our growth. As a founder, you feel that they are there for you from the beginning until the very end.”
Investors in Day One include executives of Barclays, Salesforce, Goldman Sachs, and founders of Parallels, Acronis, ePayments. Day One has invested alongside Sequoia, Benchmark, Founders Fund, NEA, First Round, Greylock, Index, and Andreessen Horowitz. It’s also invested with executives at Tinder, Robinhood, and Airbnb, as well as founders of Uber, Casper, Warby Parker, Blue Bottle, Twitter, ProductHunt, Hired and investors at Beyond Meat, Gusto, Slack, and more.
About Day One Ventures
Day One Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm pioneering a new model in VC by spearheading public relations campaigns for its portfolio companies. This enables Day One to become actively involved in its portfolio companies and play a real, tangible role in their growth. The firm invests in hard-to-imitate tech and community-driven businesses that will fundamentally change industries, and solve some of today’s biggest challenges across business and society. Day One Ventures is focused on building the most founder-centric fund and was founded by angel investor, entrepreneur, communications executive, and Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree, Masha Drokova. The firm is based in San Francisco and New York City. For more information, please visit: http://dayoneventures.co/
