Collab Capital, Atlanta’s early-stage venture capital firm run by managing partners Jewel Burks Solomon and Barry Givens, officially closed its second fund this week with $75 million in committed capital.
The firm had raised its first $50 million fund in 2021, which invested in Southeast-based firms like Boxed Up, FilmHedge, Goodr, Hairbrella, Healthy Hip Hop, ImIn, Laine London, LoanWell, Nectar, and UScope Technologies.
Collab has already written checks into six startups from the new fund, including Massachusetts-based EV charging company SparkCharge, Minneapolis-based telehealth platform River Health, and San Francisco-based AI and mobile app startup A0.
Fund II will focus on Seed and Series A investments into founders that are “best equipped to solve real-world, consequential problems through unique market expertise and lived experience,” according to a press release.
Collab will deploy $1 to $1 million checks into 30 companies over the next five years, with 40% of the fund reserved for follow-on investments.
The fund will focus on three foundational “building blocks of shared prosperity,” which Collab describes as work, healthcare, and community infrastructure.
Some of the investors in Fund II include Apple, Leon Levine Foundation, the Omidyar Network, the Southern Poverty Law Center, California IBank and The External Investing Group at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
“Fund II is supported by a mix of returning and new limited partners. We were proud to see most of our institutional partners return, several even increasing their commitment in this fund,” Jewel Burks Solomon told Hypepotamus.
The Fund II announcement comes at a rocky time across the venture capital world. Collab is only the second early-stage firm that has announced a new fund this year (the other being Valor Ventures, which announced its new $27 million fund in March).
“Fund I showed us what’s possible when you back the right people with the right support,” added Solomon. “Fund II is about scaling that belief and deepening our conviction that proximity is power and that founders closest to the problem are best positioned to solve it. We’re investing in the infrastructure of an inclusive economy, where real solutions generate real returns for our communities and for our investors.”
–
Featured photo provided by Collab Capital