Some are doing deals priced far above median valuations, such as last year's funding of software-development company Retool, which reportedly fetched a price 100 times its annualized revenue of $10 million. It's an open secret in Silicon Valley that this group of investors is willing to offer founders better terms and higher prices than traditional VCs in exchange for a chance to back fast-growing startups. In some cases, this has enabled a nascent group of investors to beat out traditional venture firms for hot deals.Īmong other solo investors making waves with their solo VC model are Lachy Groom, an early Stripe employee, and Elad Gil, a former Twitter executive who co-founded Color Genomics. What's more, these newer entrants into the venture game are raising funds in the hundreds of millions of dollars and special-purpose funding vehicles with backing from top-tier limited partners. Their rise comes as investors of all sorts clamor to pour funds into the booming venture capital asset class, and many founders view certain solo VCs as a special talent who can give their startup a boost. ![]() Individual investors have always been a part of the venture capital ecosystem, but they generally have written small checks for the earliest-stage companies.īut it's getting increasingly common to see deals like Playco's, where solo VCs invest in and even lead Series A or late-stage rounds. In addition, Buckley, a co-founder of Mino Games, in July launched Hyper, a Y Combinator-like accelerator program with partners including Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz. Since then, Buckley, who juggles investing with his role as the CEO of Product Hunt, has raised his second $200 million fund, according to a person familiar with the matter. In the Playco deal, it was Buckley, an under-the-radar investor, rather than the legendary Sequoia, who determined the price of the round and took the board seat at the gaming company. In a co-led deal, one lead investor usually sets the terms and the other joins with an equal-sized check. ![]() When Playco announced its $100 million Series A funding last September, the co-lead investors were Sequoia Global Equities and Josh Buckley, a solo VC who at the time was investing from his first $50 million fund.
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