Version One Ventures has raised $100 million across two new funds: $70 million for its core Fund IV dedicated to pre-seed and seed-stage investments, and $30 million for its Opportunities Fund II that lets the firm continue backing existing portfolio companies. That’s up from $45 million raised for Fund III and $18 million for the inaugural Opportunities Fund.
Version One will invest in 25-to-30 tech startups as part of the new funds. Its investment areas include software-as-a-service; marketplaces; cryptocurrency; healthcare; climate & energy; and more. The 9-year-old firm has backed unicorns including Seattle-based Outreach; Shippo; Ada; Dapper Labs; Coinbase; and Uniswap.
Former AbeBooks COO Boris Wertz founded Version One in 2012. Wertz is based in Vancouver, B.C., and runs the firm along with Angela Tran Kingyens, who is based in Silicon Valley.
Version One previously focused on specific geographies — Vancouver, B.C., Silicon Valley, Toronto/Waterloo, and Seattle — but recently broadened its geographical focus.
Wertz told GeekWire that Seattle remains a key geography for the firm. “It produced the first unicorn ever for Version One (Outreach) and was one of the most important ecosystems for us in the last fund with four investments (Cap Hill Brands, Demandstar, Dolly, Pienza),” he noted.
The firm has backed other Seattle startups such as Julep, Front Desk, Yapta, Dwellable, and Booster Fuels, which relocated to the Bay Area.
1/ @versiononevc turns 9 years this month – time to share some stats from investing about $100m across 3 early-stage funds into 73 portfolio companies over that period of time.
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— Boris Wertz (@bwertz) June 4, 2021