Venture

M13 Raises $175M Fund II To Invest In Early Stage Consumer Tech

M13, an early-stage consumer technology venture capital firm that has invested in Lyft, Pinterest, Ring, Bird and more has raised a second, $175 million fund. The fund was raised by a number of limited partners, including Sir Richard Branson, a serial entrepreneur and founder of Virgin Group and Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post and Thrive Global.

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The new fund will invest similarly to its first fund: Seed and Series A checks into founders across various verticals such as retail, healthcare, personal finance, and food.

M13, not to be mistaken for M12, Microsoft’s venture arm, was founded in 2016 by brothers Carter and Courtney Reum.

M13’s average check size from the second fund will total $4 million to $7 million, but the firm is reserving capital for seed and select later stage checks as well, Courtney Reum told Crunchbase News.

While venture capital firms are working harder than ever to be founder friendly, M13 comes from a unique position: the Los Angeles firm’s co-founders are previous entrepreneurs. The Reum brothers previously co-founded VeeV Spirits, a direct-to-consumer vodka spirit startup.

“We had made the mistakes, seen the missed opportunities and encountered the same milestones on the path ahead of them, so we were able to add value [for our portfolio companies] beyond our checks,” Courtney Reum told Crunchbase News. He added that along with Fund II, M13 added partners “who have operator and founder experience and most importantly deep founder empathy.”

The company added Latif Peracha as a general partner, who looked after the investments of Branson. While all general partners are men, there are two women that have investing roles as partners on the team: Mary Carmen Gasco-Buisson, managing director from P&G Ventures and Christine Choi, who leads brand and communications for the firm.

Beyond capital, M13 claims to offer strategy, partnership, product development, and talent help among other services. In a release announcing the new fund, M13 states it will support portfolio companies with an in-house incubator, Launchpad, which kickstarted in June.

Launchpad is the firm’s venture studio that helps companies develop founding teams, as well as create partnerships and test ventures in-house, per the company.

Thus far, M13 has invested in 80 startups and had 16 exits, including Lyft and FabFitFun. Investments from the second fund include Capsule, Coinmine, and Doorstead.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias.

Update: Since publication, M13 has reached out to clarify that the two women on the team – Mary Carmen Gasco-Buisson and Christine Choi have investing roles as partners at M13. 

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