Early-stage VC Javelin Venture Partners has closed a second, $105 million fund. The firm expects to use the money to fund around 20 companies over three years in seed and Series A rounds ranging from $500K to $3 million, and will reserve some of the funds for subsequent rounds raised by these portfolio companies.
Javelin was founded by Noah Doyle and Jed Katz, both of whom have experience as entrepreneurs. Doyle founded online loyalty program MyPoints.com and was an executive at Keyhole (which was acquired by Google and became Google Earth). Katz founded Rent.net and Move.com. The firm initially got its start in May 2008, and then relaunched in April 2009 with a fund size of $75 million (it’s now raised a total of $180 million).
Katz and Doyle say that they’re often asked how they differ from so-called “super angels” and explain that they can participate in later-stage rounds that angels typically can’t. But they say they’re different from typical VC firms because they’ve been entrepreneurs much of their careers and that they tend to “run at an entrepreneur’s pace” in terms of reaching decisions quickly. (Of course, many other VCs have entrepreneurial experience and will make similar claims). Katz and Doyle also say that they tend to be very involved with their companies, as opposed to just swinging by for board meetings.
The first Javelin fund has had one exit so far: Scout Labs, which was acquired by Lithium Technologies for $20-25 million last May.