Maven Ventures, a seed investor in consumer Internet and mobile startups, has filed to raise $20 million for its second fund, according to a regulatory filing.
Fund II is a step-up from the Palo Alto, California-based firm’s $7.5 million first fund, raised in 2013. Founder and Managing Partner Jim Scheinman said although the inaugural fund is only two years old, it already achieved one exit earlier this year. Life360 paid an undisclosed price for portfolio company Waldo, a geo-location app that alerts friends on one’s whearabouts. Scheinman said the exit resulted in a “good outcome for the founders and investors.”
Scheinman said the remaining 21 investments from the Fund I portfolio are all still active and doing well.
Fund I is “doing great with a 55 percent IRR to date, and 60 percent of our companies having done up-rounds and in some cases at 10x from our initial investment,” he said.
Detailed performance data for Fund I is unavailable.
Scheinman, who was an entrepreneur-in-residence with CRV before launching Maven in 2008 as an angel investor, said the strategy for the new fund will remain the same, with its focus on consumer-focused and seed-stage investing. However, he said Fund II will invest larger amounts, from $500,000 to $750,000, and take more lead roles in fewer deals for a slightly more concentrated Fund II portfolio.
He anticipates making 16 to 18 investments with the second fund, while reserving more for follow-on financings.
More on Scheinman’s investing approach is available on his blog at jimscheinman.com.
As an angel investor and through his firm, Scheinman was an investor in Bebo, which AOL acquired in 2008 for $850 million. He also seeded Check, which Intuit acquired in 2014 for $350 million.
Banjo, another portfolio company he seeded, in May raised $100 million from SoftBank, giving the company a valuation approaching $1 billion, Scheinman said. Other investments he’s made as an angel and through Fund I include AngelList, Friendster, NBCi, Neighborly, Tango.me and Wealthfront.
Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly reported the fund was closed. The fund is targeted at $20 million and no amount has been raised, according to the filing.
Photo: Jim Scheinman, founder of Maven Ventures, speaks at Venture Alpha West, part of the PartnerConnect West conference held in Half Moon Bay, California, from October 13-14, 2015. Photo by Alastair Goldfisher
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