tusk ventures Archives - Crunchbase News /tag/tusk-ventures/ Data-driven reporting on private markets, startups, founders, and investors Wed, 18 Dec 2019 19:05:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.5 /wp-content/uploads/cb_news_favicon-150x150.png tusk ventures Archives - Crunchbase News /tag/tusk-ventures/ 32 32 Tusk Ventures More Than Doubles Down With New $70M Fund /venture/tusk-ventures-more-than-doubles-down-with-new-70m-fund/ Wed, 18 Dec 2019 18:21:20 +0000 http://news.crunchbase.com/?p=23531 When Uber was first rolling out across the United States, Bradley Tusk helped the team wade through the clashes with city governments and legislation as the ride-hailing startups first . After a , and after realizing that Uber wouldn’t be the last company that needed to navigate the tricky intersection of government and politics, he started

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When I chatted with Tusk back in November he described his firm as follows: “We’re this very weird entity within VC, we come out of politics and focus on that intersection.”

Tusk Ventures just closed its second fund in four years, a $70 million investment vehicle to invest in startups that need to navigate regulations and the risk associated with them. This is more than double its debut fund, which closed at $36 million. The team plans to write checks that vary from $750,000 to $5 million for initial investments, .

Let’s get a little more color on what that rule-breaking (or making) cohort looks and sounds like.

, Tusk and Nof say that they invest in companies “often creating new markets altogether, where no regulatory framework likely exists (yet).”

For example, the New York firm invested in , an e-scooter company, as it launched in cities across the United States. Tusk Ventures also invested in Roman, which needed to navigate telemedicine regulations so it could push its new healthcare model. This new fund has let them into startups like , which wants to upend lawn and gardening services, and , which claims it offers a “new practice model for therapists.” As for what’s ahead, founding partner Nof tells me they’re specifically interested in digital health, affordable housing and homeownership, and consumer finance as industries.

The firm shared certain fund performance metrics with Crunchbase News and asserted that it is in the top quartile of funds from all new funds raised in 2016. Additionally, Tusk Ventures told Crunchbase News that $6.5M of the $16.1M they invested since January 2019 has gone to female founders.

In a post announcing the new fund, the partners pointed to how difficult it was to raise its debut investment, which they think is partly because their fund “is fundamentally different from many traditional VCs and from what LPs are used to evaluating.”

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Former Twitter CEO And COO Are Starting A $200M VC Fund /venture/former-twitter-ceo-and-coo-are-starting-a-200m-vc-fund/ Tue, 06 Aug 2019 22:31:21 +0000 http://news.crunchbase.com/?p=19850 As , former Twitter CEO and former Twitter COO have started an advisory and investment firm: 01 Advisors.

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According , the duo has already raised $134.7 million for their inaugural fund, which is aiming for a total of $200 million.

It appears that the two former Twitter executives have leveraged their old job titles to give advice and capital to entrepreneurs. In between both of ’s stints as CEO of the San Francisco social media company, Costolo ran the shop at Twitter amidst . , consulted for HBO’s Silicon Valley program, , and now works as a partner at , .

Then there’s former COO Bain, who was credited with building and launching Twitter’s advertising business. In fact, , Bain was even eyed to be CEO before Dorsey swept in for his second tenure. After Bain left in 2016, the former COO has been advising and investing in startups like , , , and sneaker marketplace .

Costolo and Twitter did not immediately respond for comment. Bain declined to comment citing quiet-period restrictions.

Monetizing upon your previous experience at a quickly growing startup, especially a startup with the global expanse of Twitter, is smart and somewhat common. For example, was launched by a trio, two of whom were ex- employees. The fund even went as far to say that it would only invest in startups started by ex-Airbnb employees. Wave Capital has since pivoted to invest in marketplace startups more generally.

The ex-Twitter executive duo are moving their consulting efforts into a formalized effort with this new fund. The Axios story parallels 01 Advisors to , a venture capital firm led by that invests in startups in regulated industries. Tusk started off as a consulting shop for larger companies before it began to work with startups in return for equity. Then, Tusk launched a venture capital fund to invest in startups more directly.

Another example of executives going from consulting to investing is . and started a after taking on clients who needed advertising help.

We’ve been tracking the transition of venture capital firms from ATMs to advice giving and service-providing machines. This news is an example of another venture firm coming into existence with more than just capital as their offer: the duo will likely bring their experience at Twitter to the startups that they bet on.

Illustration: .

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with a comment from Adam Bain. 

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