Our Second Chapter — Fika Ventures II
We are delighted to announce Fika Ventures II, a $76M fund, a little over 2 years after we launched our first fund. We set out to build a unique brand of service that focuses on driving value for founders from day one, and are deeply grateful that 24 companies have taken the leap with us. Through them, we see a better future, as they strive to solve some of the world’s most meaningful problems by combining cutting-edge data-driven technologies with a humanistic approach.
Looking back over the last 2+ years, we want to reflect on what we set out to do, what we did and what we have learned along the way.
- Overweight B2B investments in Los Angeles and consider deals in other markets in a more opportunistic and reactive manner
LA continues to birth exciting B2B/enterprise companies, as more founders recognize that there are clear advantages in planting roots in this thriving market. We will continue to make about half of our bets here. However, as we uncover problem areas and market needs that are aching to be solved, we will also proactively look across the US to find the best companies and talent to build these solutions. As such, we have not shied away from making investments in the Bay Area as well as in burgeoning markets like Boston, Chicago, Austin and Seattle and will continue to do so with our new fund. - Lead deals where we feel we bring outsized ability to support founders
In Fund I, we led around 30% of our deals. Moving forward, we plan to lead a greater percentage of our deals and build out a bigger service platform and team to increasingly support founders in a more meaningful way. We will also reserve more capital for subsequent rounds and increase our average initial check size from $500K-$1M to $1–1.5M. - Invest in founders who are obsessively driven to fix deeply broken things AND seek to have a positive impact on the lives of people and society
We have stayed true to the types of founders that we are drawn to, as we continue to lean into prioritizing character as much as competency. The ability to self-observe, take responsibility and balance courage and humility is weighted as much as, if not more than, a fancy resume. - Commitment to back solutions that benefit the many versus the few
We continue to double down on companies that are solving problems that affect the many, versus the 1%. As Freada Kapor eloquently states, we are not interested in supporting “gap-widening” (i.e. inequality gap) ideas, and continue to look for transformative ideas in unsexy industries like fintech, logistics, real estate, education and healthcare that aim to level the playing field. - Embrace founders who bring unique insights and contrarian conviction
We believed in this broad construct but did not have a diversity mandate. However, we found that one third of our founders are from intersectional backgrounds. We believe this is an organic outcome of the fact that our fund is 50% female, and comprises individuals from different ethnic, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds. We look forward to continuing to back founders building companies that reflect the remarkable potential in our country’s diversity.
Every day, we wake up pinching ourselves that we get to do what we do. We are still very early in our journey, but are inspired by the quality of our growing portfolio and the potential impact each of them will have on our society. We are honored to partner with new LPs in our second fund, and incredibly grateful to our returning LPs who continue to believe in us. We can’t be more fired up for what lies ahead.
Team Fika,
