Mucker raises $45 mln for new seed fund

Mucker Capital has raised $45 million for a second institutional fund targeting seed and pre-seed Internet-focused deals.

The fund, managed by Erik Rannala and William Hsu, is a significant step up from the Santa Monica, Calif.-based firm’s roughly $18 million 2013 fund.

“We’re not going to change the pace very much,” said Rannala, a former investor at Harrison Metal. But “the seed investments are going to be a little larger.”

The fund was oversubscribed with an original target of $40 million and attracted such LPs as Michael Kim’s Cendana Capital.

Rannala said his focus is Internet-enabled software services in the consumer and business-to-business spaces. He anticipates average initial checks of $500,000 to $750,000 for seed deals, compared with average checks of $250,000 to $500,000 from the previous fund. The goal is to lead more rounds.

Mucker expects seven to nine seed deals a year in addition to 10 pre-seed investments made through the firm’s MuckerLab accelerator. A pre-seed investment is usually under $100,000.

Photo illustration of Santa Monica pier courtesy of Shutterstock.