NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ansa Capital, a new venture firm, today announced a $100 million initial raise of its debut fund that will focus on emerging growth stage companies. The fund’s initial backers include institutions such as Princeton University’s endowment, Accolade Partners, Financial Investments Corporation, as well as individual investors Henry Kravis, George Roberts, and Peter Chernin. Ansa seeks to build a focused portfolio with targeted initial investments of $5m to $15m in companies that are pioneering new markets, reinventing distribution models, and modernizing legacy systems.
Ansa is founded by two experienced investors—Marco DeMeireles, formerly TCG, and Allan Jean-Baptiste, formerly KKR Growth—who built their careers by working with many of the world’s most iconic companies to establish new markets and business models. Ansa productizes their approach to investing, competing where traditional firms structurally break—emerging categories, dated networks, and misalignment. Prior to establishing Ansa, the founding partners supported leading companies across sector categories, such as Coinbase, Everlywell, Fanduel, Slice, and ForgeRock.
“The next generation of transformative companies won't fit neatly into a category or business model like they may have in the past,” said Allan Jean-Baptiste, Co-Founder and General Partner of Ansa. “Venture capitalists that rely on traditional investing criteria and industry silos continue to overlook these companies and founders – we’ve built Ansa to solve that.”
“Ansa Capital's philosophy is simple: under-covered markets and individuals generate outsized opportunities.” said Marco DeMeireles, Co-Founder and General Partner of Ansa. “Ansa marries our thesis-driven approach, strong founder-investor fit, and success investing in the largest outcomes across categories, to help tomorrow's entrepreneurs build great companies.”
Ansa has established an extensive network of the next-generation of founders and operational leaders that don’t appear in typical venture capital networks. The Ansa Network is a community of over 35 functional “doers” with experience solving today’s high-growth challenges and come from some of the world’s leading companies such as Etsy, Alphabet, GoodRx, and Snap Inc. The Ansa Network will bring their diverse perspective to bear and partner with Ansa’s founders to unlock their potential, fix gaps in operations, source new talent, and accelerate expansion.
Ansa is also backed by best-in-class limited partners, including endowments, foundations, investment managers, industry leaders, and family offices.
"Princeton is proud to partner with Ansa in its first fund," said Andrew Golden, President of PRINCO. "Allan and Marco are intelligent and talented investors with the resolve to build an enduring firm, and we look forward to a long and productive partnership.”
"For over 20 years, Accolade has identified and backed first-time funds that have gone on to deliver industry-leading returns. Since our initial conversation, we believed that Ansa would quickly join that list,” said Joelle Kayden, Founder and Managing Partner of Accolade Partners. “Marco and Allan combine impressive backgrounds with a unique perspective on where they see potential, two necessary ingredients for finding investment opportunities where others don’t.”
About Ansa
Ansa is an expansion-stage investment fund built to support founders as they scale. Our focus is on new markets, innovative distribution models, and modernizing legacy systems, serving as the hub of tomorrow’s leading companies, operators and ideas. Our team and community of functional operators bring diverse perspectives and resources to bear, helping the next generation of leaders win.
For more information please visit ansa.co.