Origin Ventures raises $130m for fifth fund

Origin Ventures has closed its fifth fund at $130 million, beating its original $100 million target. The fund’s investor base includes institutional, family office, and individual LPs. The Chicago-based venture firm invests in software and marketplace businesses in the digital native economy.

PRESS RELEASE

We are pleased to announce the closing of Origin Ventures V at $130M. The fund was significantly oversubscribed vs. the original $100M target. The announcement was covered by Techcrunch, Crain’s Chicago Business, and Chicago Inno.

We are welcoming many new institutional, family office, and individual LPs to this fund. Our LP base now stretches from Seattle to Miami, and NY to LA in the U.S. – as well as Mexico, Canada, and South America.

That is similar to our investment portfolio, as our remote-first strategy has taken us to 19 different markets for investment activity over the past several years.

As we mentioned in our fundraising pitches – our strategy is largely unchanged from what has helped us achieve industry-leading realized returns in prior funds. Specifically, we’ll continue to back elite founding teams in their Seed and Series A financings who are working on disruptive software, marketplace and consumer businesses aligned with our digital native (millennials & Gen Z) thesis.

In fact, the fund has already closed 11 investments and has 3 additional investments expected to close before the end of the year. The portfolio includes several companies exhibiting high growth rates, including:

Blueboard – an experiential employee rewards and recognition provider
Vivrelle – a membership club for luxury goods
Veho – a ‘last mile’ delivery platform leveraging gig economy drivers
Lumanu – a payment platform for creators and brands
Everee – next day payments for hourly and gig workers

Similar to our portfolio companies, we are embracing a ‘remote first’ approach with our own organization. Prashant Shukla will be based in the Bay Area and will lead our west coast investments. Scott Stern has relocated to the DC metro area and will lead our investments in the mid-Atlantic and the southeast. Combined with our existing operations in Chicago and Salt Lake City, our firm will have a Partner within 90 minutes of any entrepreneur – pursuing the best deals no matter where they are.

Raising this fund during the pandemic meant that we haven’t met some of our new LPs in person yet. On a positive note – we were able to meet new investors all over the U.S. and abroad over the past year. We are looking forward to seeing everyone in person in the year ahead.

As always, we appreciate the support of our Limited Partners and look forward to sharing new investments and developments for our companies with all of you.