SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PSL Ventures, a Seattle-based venture capital fund that invests in early-stage technology companies, announced the close of its second venture capital fund today. The $100 million venture fund will invest in companies based primarily in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The fund also will participate in financings of spinouts from its affiliated startup studio, Pioneer Square Labs.
The fund’s limited partner group is composed of charitable foundations, institutional investment firms, endowments, pension funds, funds of funds, and world-renowned technology industry executives and founders. The oversubscribed fund closed at the top of its target range.
PSL Ventures is led by five 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; Ben Gilbert, co-host of popular technology podcast “Acquired” and serial entrepreneur; T.A. McCann, former founder and CEO of both Gist (acquired by Blackberry) and Senosis (acquired by Google); and Geoff Entress, former venture partner of Voyager Capital and Madrona Venture Group, and prominent Northwest angel investor.
“We are obsessed with investing in founders right as they are beginning the journey, often barely after they’ve incorporated,” said Julie Sandler, PSL Ventures co-founding Managing Director. “It’s what we’re best at. We love being that ‘first check in,’ and we take a ton of pride in our ability to provide such meaningful support to founders from the get-go.”
The new venture fund is affiliated with PSL’s startup studio, Pioneer Square Labs, which co-founds and launches venture-scale technology companies with local entrepreneurs. PSL studio spinouts represent roughly 15% of all early-stage technology companies that have raised venture capital in Washington state over the past year. One out of every three PSL companies is female-founded, and one out of every eight is BIPOC-founded. PSL’s studio previously raised $29 million from over a dozen leading U.S. venture capital funds and over 50 angel investors.
In addition to the five managing directors, PSL’s studio team of engineers, data scientists, designers, recruiters and marketers actively support the management teams of PSL Ventures’ portfolio companies.
“From the hour we incorporated all the way through to where we are today, the PSL team has helped me to build Boundless from the ground up,” said Xiao Wang, CEO and founder of Boundless, a PSL Ventures portfolio company and studio spinout. “The team has such a unique ability to blend the strategic and the tactical, and are unflagging in their supportiveness through thick and thin.”
PSL Ventures’ first fund launched in 2018 and was an oversubscribed $80 million fund. Pioneer Square Labs co-founder Ben Gilbert has been named a Managing Director in the new fund, joining Entress, Gottesman, McCann, and Sandler.
PSL Ventures will lead and participate in pre-seed and seed investments in technology companies founded by entrepreneurs across the Pacific Northwest. PSL Ventures does not plan to lead investments in PSL Studio spinouts, though the fund will participate in their financings when led by other investors.
About PSL Ventures
PSL Ventures is a venture capital fund located in Seattle, WA. The fund is affiliated with Seattle-based startup studio Pioneer Square Labs. The organization partners with exceptional founders at the earliest stages to help build and invest in market-defining technology companies, primarily based in the Pacific Northwest. For more information, visit www.psl.com.
