We are pleased to announce that Flybridge has raised a pair of new, oversubscribed funds with aggregate commitments of $150 million to continue our mission of backing ambitious founders at the pre-seed and seed stage. With this latest fundraise, Flybridge crosses $1 billion in assets under management, reflecting the outstanding success of our founders and portfolio companies during our 20-year history.
The new capital includes our Seed Fund (our sixth), which with $110M in committed capital will invest in very early-stage startups leveraging the power of community as a source of competitive advantage, as well as an Opportunities Fund (our first), which will invest exclusively in our fast-growing portfolio companies as part of an outside-led growth financing. The Seed Fund has already closed eight new investments in AI/robotics, cybersecurity, low code/no code, creator economy, web3/crypto/NFTs, and SaaS. Our first Opportunities Fund investment was our recently announced investment in the Series B at Chief, a company we first invested in when we co-led the $3 million seed round in 2018.
The new funds complement our four Network Funds: (1) XFactor Ventures (focused on female founders), (2) The Community Fund (focused on under-estimated founders), (3) The Graduate Syndicate (focused on founders who recently graduated from Harvard), and (4) a new Network Fund called LTV Operators, comprised of C-level executives at unicorn startups.
A few years ago, we reinvented the firm and took an innovative approach to how we invest. Starting with The Graduate Syndicate in 2016, we created each of these Network Funds to empower operators and founders around the world to invest in talented founders from their own communities. While our core investment team is comprised of four partners and one senior associate, our fund is the anchor investor for each of these Network Funds that are made up of over 40 investment team members. We power the back office and handle fundraising while supporting these funds with mentorship, education, connections, and community. This strategy has both deepened our insights and expertise and expanded the Flybridge community in a massive way, allowing us to see 5x more investment opportunities than other seed funds of a similar size.
Ultimately, what really inspires our team every day is working with our community of over 400 founders across over 300 companies. They represent a very special, diverse group of extraordinary people who have invited us to join them in their disruptive missions to create significant companies from scratch. Some of these founders have become leaders in their industry — such as Bowery, Chief, FalconX, and MongoDB — and have done so with a unique blend of grit and passion.
While we acknowledge the range of crises rocking our world — from Ukraine to COVID to climate change to a racial reckoning — we could not be more bullish about the investment opportunities in front of us. At a time when we are collectively becoming increasingly digital, globally connected, awash in data, and decentralized, the number of innovations and disruptive opportunities is simply dizzying. Advancements in the science of entrepreneurship and company-building, as well as the accompanying tools, have dramatically compressed timelines and improved a founder’s odds of success. New companies can be created remotely and rapidly like never before. New products can be efficiently built upon powerful platforms that we barely dreamed of ten years ago. What will the next ten years bring?
We couldn’t be more excited to find out.
Thank you to our investors for their continued trust and a special thank you to our past, current, and future founders. We are honored to serve and support you.
