Rosecliff’s Investment Thesis

When I began crafting Rosecliff’s platform strategy, I read Christian Hernandez’ article, entitled “Part of a VC’s Job is Making it onto ‘The List’”. Hernandez creates a framework for VC firms to clearly advertise their areas of investment interest and verticals to founders. This removes ambiguity from the fundraising process for both parties. It’s safe to say that in our industry, the competition for fantastic founders and their shrinking cap tables is fierce, and candid communication is key. Bloomberg recently reported that New York outgrew San Francisco as the world’s best tech city. According to the article,

“New York pulled ahead thanks to its volume of venture capital cash, large pool of talent — both homegrown and people attracted to the city — and the opportunities that exist for them.” — Sydney Maki, Bloomberg

So, I set out to answer this question: In the bustling VC space of NYC, America, and the world, how does Rosecliff Ventures define itself?

• What does Rosecliff invest in as a firm? We invest in disruptive tech designed to make life better, brighter, bolder, and more efficient.We are sector agnostic, open to any opportunity. We value founders who are open and honest, as this is the culture at Rosecliff. We value founders who strive for explosive growth, and will communicate needs so we can help them get there. One thing is certain, we only invest in companies where we feel that we can add value. Mike Murphy, our founding partner, has 25+ years of hedge fund and private equity experience. Our LPs are successful business veterans who want to engage directly with our portfolio companies, and are willing to use their networks and expertise to help our founders win.
• What stage does Rosecliff invest at? What size checks does the fund write? Rosecliff has the capacity to invest in everything from Seed to Pre-IPO. We have five funds, and our latest fund size is $175M. Rosecliff has a total of $700M assets under management as of April 2020. We write checks from ranging from $500k — $10M. However, we find that our sweet spot so far has been Seed and Series A investments, with the intention to follow on as the company grows.
• What sectors is the Rosecliff team interested in? The Rosecliff team has extremely diverse interests, as evidenced by our sector-agnostic portfolio of 70+ companies. Here is a selection… Krish, our analyst, is interested in fintech, blockchain, machine learning, and edge computing. Connor, our associate, is interested in D2C consumer brands, transportation, and disruption in legacy industries. I am interested in sustainable businesses, materials science innovation and closed-loop manufacturing systems.

When founders ask themselves, “which venture firms are most likely to participate in my next round?” we want them to think of Rosecliff.

We want them to recall Rosecliff’s defining features as a cutting-edge fund, known for backing innovative popular brands (Allbirds, Casper, ForDays, TenToOne Rum), direct to consumer healthcare solutions (Keeps, Roman), sustainable B2B solutions (Recycle Track Systems), and fast-growing Fintech companies (Petal Card). With 70+ portfolio companies, our deal flow is growing nationally and internationally.

Are you working on something we should know about? Contact us: contact@rosecliffvc.com