Los Angeles-based Wonder Ventures has raised $15m for its second venture fund aimed at pre-seed rounds.
Wonder Ventures Fund II will be used to back early-stage tech companies in the greater Los Angeles area. The fund will deploy more than 90 per cent of its capital in the LA area, the VC’s founder Dustin Rosen said in a Medium post.
Fund II has secured commitments from over 30 limited partners, including 20 LA founders as well as institutional fund of funds and large family offices.
Wonder Ventures will invest between $250,000 and $500,000 per round, which is between five and 10 times the size of the cheques written for start-ups in Fund I.
The firm previously raised its first vehicle in early 2015, to invest between $50,000 and $100,000 in angel-sized deals. It is unclear how much was raised for the vehicle.
Alongside the fundraise, Wonder Ventures have also announced the appointment of Abha Nath as an investor at the firm.
Writing in the release, Rosen said, “When I launched Wonder Ventures four years ago, two things were abundantly clear to me. One, the LA tech ecosystem was becoming a force to be reckoned with. Two, startups in LA had way too much trouble raising early capital.
“We are honored to be investors from the earliest stage (often the first check) in 30+ LA companies.”
The firm’s current and previous investments have included Clutter, Tala, Coinbase, WeRecover and CREXi.
