PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vertex Ventures US (VVUS) today announced that it has raised its third and largest fund with $200M in capital to lead or co-lead Seed and Series A investments in SaaS and infrastructure software startups. Initial investments range from $500K to $10M, and Vertex continues supporting 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.
“VVUS was founded as a stage and sector focused firm. We believe that our concentrated strategy - devoting time, energy and capital towards a few new investments each fund - is best aligned for founders and investors,” said Jonathan Heiliger. “With Funds 1 and 2, we have proven that this strategy is great for generating returns and supporting founders alike. With our slightly larger Fund 3, we are doubling down on our point of view for early-stage VC.”
VVUS’ team of former founders and operators combine their collective experiences to coach founders, recruit talent and improve their odds of success. The new fund follows VVUS’s $150 million 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.
VVUS Fund 3 is stewarded by Insik Rhee, Jonathan Heiliger, and newly-promoted general partner Sandeep Bhadra. 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. Megan developed a reputation as a thoughtful deep-tech and developer tools investor at Crane Venture Partners and Entrepreneur First in London, and will work with a larger canvas of companies across North America and Europe.
In response to demand from early-stage CEOs, the firm 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 “what great looks like” in 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.
“We appreciate how closely they work with founders to build a solid foundation for success,“ said Rajoshi Ghosh, Founder and COO, of Hasura. “They’ve made key customer and partner introductions and have provided unrestrained access and support to their entire network. VVUS has helped us hire our top talent and has believed in us before others have. They’ve been critical in our journey.”
For more information and to reach the VVUS team, please visit VVUS.com.
