Revolution has held the $150m final close for its sophomore Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, which will back
The fund comes just two years after its maiden Rise fund, which also had a capital pool of $150m. Numerous of its investors returned to support the new vehicle, including high-profile angel investors Jeff Bezos, Sara Blakely, Jim Breyer, Ray Dalio, and John Doerr.
While there were many former backers returning for investments, they were joined by several first timers including Joshua Harris, Bill Haslam, and James Murdoch.
The Rise Fund I has invested into around 130 companies and spanning 70 countries. The remaining capital balance is been reserved for follow-on investments in its portfolio, due to a quicker growth-rate of its investments, with nearly a dozen reaching a $100m valuation, the company claims.
Its portfolio is comprised of seed stage companies from sectors including financial services, health, sports, e-commerce, and food, among others.
The Revolution portfolio includes digital insurance policy comparison platform PolicyGenius, mobile-based lending service TALA, and affordable, credit-building loans company Aura.
Revolution CEO Steve Case said, “At the launch of our first Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, we were confident that we could identify a wide range of promising startups based outside of Silicon Valley. But the results to date have exceeded our most optimistic expectations.
“We have made initial investments at a faster pace than we originally anticipated, and we’re seeing a stepped-up pace of follow-on investments in companies that have scaled faster than expected. We were once a lonely voice in the venture world in touting this regional investment opportunity and are delighted to see the momentum now building in cities across the country.”
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