The micro-VCs are growing up. Case in point: Jeff Clavier, who started out as an angel investor backing Web 2.0 companies and then transitioned his portfolio into a more formal venture firm, SoftTech VC. Clavier just finished raising a total of $55 million for SoftTech’s third fund. SoftTech’s main focus is on three areas: mobile, next-generation e-commerce, and cloud-based services.
He launched SoftTech III a year ago with $15 million, with the intention to raise a total of $35 million. When he started raising money this summer, though, he was able to increase that target to $55 million. He also added a partner, Charles Hudson, and a senior associate, Steph Palmeri.
“We raised more because we wanted to invest more in companies we are already invested in,” says Clavier, who came by our New York City offices yesterday to shoot an episode of Founder Stories, where he also speaks about his new fund. SoftTech has already backed 100 startups over the years, including Mint, Eventbrite, Get Satisfaction, FitBit, Fab, and SendGrid.
As a seed-round investor he found it difficult to keep his ownership stake in later rounds, and so like many successful early-stage VCs, he decided to raise a larger round so that he could keep investing in follow-on rounds for the winners in his portfolio. When he started out on his own, he was making $25,000 to $50,000 investments. Then in Fund II, he was making $100,000 investments. Now with Fund III, his average initial investment is $400,000 with the goal to buy at least 5 percent of a company, and keep that stake as long as he can. His largest investment to date is FitBit, which recently raised $12 million (SoftTech has put in “north of $1.5 million” over the past three rounds).
With Fund III, he has already done 23 investments, and plans on doing a total of 60 (which comes to about $25 million for the initial investments). He figures that 50 percent of those SoftTech will do follow-on investments, and that is what the remaining $30 million will be used for. Below is an infographic (from SoftTech portfolio company Visua.ly) breaking down SoftTech’s progression and how its investment activity has changed over time.
SoftTech VC is an early stage venture capital firm managing seed stage funds, SoftTech VC II and SoftTech VC III. SoftTech VC funds are backed by a mix of institutional and private investors. SoftTech has consistently invested in 20+ new opportunities a year in consumer Internet companies, including next gen commerce, mobile and SaaS. Founder and managing partner Jeff Clavier launched SoftTech VC in 2004, making the original 20+ investments (our non-traditional ‘Fund I’) as a business angel, investing his...
Based in Palo Alto, California, Jean-Francois “Jeff” Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Web 2.0 startups. Since 2004, Jeff has invested 110+ consumer internet startups in areas like social media, monetization, search, gaming or B2B/B2C web services. These investments are typically located in Silicon Valley, New-York and Boulder. With over 20 years of operational, entrepreneurial and venture capital experience, Jeff is able to add relevant perspective...
Sponsored Ads
Sponsored Ads
Sponsored Ads
Barcelona, Spain
New York City
San Francisco, CA
