We’ve got a long way to go, but we’re excited to report our early progress towards building a leading investment platform pioneering frontier technology. In late December, we closed on Loup Ventures Fund I, a $25 million multi-stage venture capital fund focused on investing in frontier technology companies.

Now, Loup Ventures’ mission is a shared one.

We’re honored to work for the team of limited partners that invested in LVI. We’re grateful for their belief in us as we build something from the ground up. That trust has given us a deeper level of respect for the opportunity ahead of us: to create a portfolio of entrepreneurs we believe in.

Thanks also to everyone that’s been willing to connect with us as new VCs and support us on that journey. We’re looking forward to returning the favor and paying it forward.

Every VC Should Have to Raise a Fund At Least Once. We liken raising a venture fund without a traditional VC track record to raising a seed round as a first-time founder. We had to sell investors on our team and our vision vs what we’ve done in the past. Asking someone to write you a check to do something you’ve never done before is incredibly hard. The weight of that responsibility does not sit lightly with us. Hopefully it doesn’t sit lightly with any other investor or entrepreneur that’s gotten the same vote of confidence. Our experience of raising money has given us an intimate understanding of what it’s like to sit on the other side of the table and be the ones asking. We try to be respectful of this process by moving quickly and giving clear feedback about whether we are interested in investing or not.

Finding Product Market Fit. Much like new companies, new venture funds need to find product market fit, too. We started Loup Ventures as a research-driven venture fund, publishing regular analysis on frontier tech. Some of our approach has resonated really well. Some of it hasn’t. We’ve tried to take the feedback from the market on what is and isn’t valuable and use it to inform our strategy. We plan on being around for a long time. The only way to do that is to keep iterating to make sure we’re providing value to all of our key stakeholders.

Raising Money is an Achievement, But Not the Achievement. While we’re appreciative of the congratulations we’ve gotten on raising the fund, that’s only the first step for us. Success for us isn’t raising money or even an exit in our portfolio, it’s building a team that consistently backs transformative frontier technology companies to generate great returns for our LPs. That achievement will take much more time than it took to raise Fund I, but we’re looking forward to the journey.

Disclaimer: We actively write about the themes in which we invest: artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, and augmented reality. From time to time, we will write about companies that are in our portfolio. Content on this site including opinions on specific themes in technology, market estimates, and estimates and commentary regarding publicly traded or private companies is not intended for use in making investment decisions. We hold no obligation to update any of our projections. We express no warranties about any estimates or opinions we make.