Angel investor Rashtchy seeks $50 mln: VCJ

Safa Rashtchy, an angel investor and trend-spotter focused on consumer technology, is raising $50 million for a fund called Think Ventures, according to a securities filing.

Rashtchy could not be reached for comment, although a posting on his website, SRnext, mentions that he is curtailing new angel investments to focus on his “fund idea.” The fund has been a long time in the making, as Rashtchy blogged in 2011 that he was launching an early-stage vehcile focused on consumer technology and media.

A well known name in startup circles, Rashtchy developed a reputation for trend analysis in the late 1990s and 2000s, when he worked as a managing director and analyst at investment bank Piper Jaffray. Before he left Piper Jaffray in mid-2007, his research touched on such topics as search engine competition, trends in consumer consumption of media, and the explosion of user-generated content. Rashtchy also served for a time as lead China analyst.

As an angel investor, Rashtchy’s focus areas encompass next-generation social networking, e-commerce, sharing economies, travel, consumer-focused health care and wearable technology. His portfolio companies include Bina Technologies, a provider of genomic analysis tools; Backplane, a platform for building online communities; and Triptrotting, a site for connecting travelers and hosts.

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Photo illustration of funding text sign from Shutterstock.