We are delighted to announce that Maveron has closed its seventh fund with $180M in commitments. We’ve been shaking up the status quo for over 20 years and this new fund allows us to invest in a new generation of founders who want to change the world.
We are privileged to partner with entrepreneurs building the iconic brands of tomorrow. We invest in founders with a passion for consumer trends and help them along their journey from obscurity to ubiquity. Over the last 20 years, we have backed consumer brands such as eBay, Zulily, Allbirds, Trupanion, General Assembly, Everlane, Modern Fertility, Eargo, Imperfect Produce, Co-Star and many more.
Fund VII will be invested by a team of three women and three men: Dan Levitan, Jason Stoffer, Anarghya Vardhana, David Wu, Cat Lee, and Natalie Dillon. Our team’s diversity and gender equity is not just the right thing to do, it gives us an edge. We’re able to see things others can’t because of our balanced team. Last year, 70% of the founders we backed were women and all of those founders were also CEO or co-CEO. Beyond gender diversity, we also have someone on the investment team in every decade of their lives from their 20s to their 60s. That perspective marries the experience and scars of living through multiple market cycles with youthful optimism and connectivity to today’s tastemakers and trends. Our diversity, across many dimensions, is intentional and something we are committed to maintaining. The customers of our portfolio companies are diverse and we need that same representation inside the firm to understand what is relevant.
In an era when everyone is raising more capital than ever, we turned away over $70M of capital to keep our fund size small. It takes discipline to do something different from the rest of the herd, but we know that we’re not in the business of AUM, we’re in the business of generating cash-on-cash returns. The Maveron partners are also the largest collective investor in the fund further aligning ourselves with our investors and founders. We know in this market it is hard to adhere to the idea that size is the enemy of performance but we believe in that truth here. We are committed to investing early stage in the next-generation of world-changing consumer brands.
Looking ahead, we expect to invest the new fund at the intersection of technology and customer needs. We approach consumer investing from the mind of the customer and look for big markets where there is an opportunity to create a trusted and beloved experience. Right now we are focused on a number of trends: Anarghya is spending a lot of time looking at what the unbundling of Facebook will look like over the next five years; Cat has been exploring and investing in companies that serve the unmet needs of women; David is looking at how entertainment is going to be reinvented; and Natalie is focused on both Gen Z and the aging population in the US. You’ll see us invest the fund in a broad swath of early stage consumer brands from DTC products to social networks and healthcare companies.
We also look beyond markets and sectors to the values of the founders and business models. Maveron’s values are the inspiration behind our work; they embody the characteristics of the Maveron team on our best days. Our values are: Unapologetically Non-Normal, Relationships over Transactions, Profit + Purpose, and Win the Right Way.
We believe that the most visionary founders are looking for investors with values, just like the customers of today are looking for brands that stand for something. Those values have helped guide us to incredible performance across our funds over the last ten years.
The center of gravity of the investment team is in San Francisco today, and we still have an office in Seattle. That said, you’ll find us on a lot of planes — sourcing companies all over the country and supporting our companies in wherever they may be, because we know the next great business can come from anywhere. When you’re ready to launch the next great consumer brand, come and talk to us. We are excited to show you what unapologetically non-normal looks like in a VC.
Warmly,
Dan, Jason, Anarghya, David, Pete, Elise, Cat, and Natalie
