LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--M13, the consumer technology venture capital firm, announced a $400 million fund to invest in seed to Series B startups that enable the future of consumer behavior in work, commerce, health, and money.
M13 was established in 2016 with the goal to help founders execute better. Its 10 full-time partners don’t have traditional venture backgrounds; each partner is an experienced founder and/or operator with a track record of building iconic companies (DigitalOcean, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit, GOAT, Gilt). M13 has managed two top-performing funds (2015 $92M, 2019 $188M). Of its 15 early-stage investments that are now each valued at over $1B, seven unicorns were seeded by M13: Cabify, Cue, Daily Harvest, Matterport, Ring, Rothy’s, and Transfix.
M13 Co-founder Carter Reum said, “Like Messier 13, one of the brightest star clusters in the Northern sky, we believe we’re truly brighter together. We invested early in building a platform for the long term, an operator-led model that helps founders make better decisions faster and shift the J curve. Our impact is possible because the breadth and depth of our partners’ expertise and experience are unmatched. We’re better investors because we’re operators and better operators because we’re investors. Our third fund represents an evolution for our investment approach as we focus on the infrastructure layer that powers brands.”
Fund III will be deployed across early-stage technology startups building the future of work, commerce, health, and money, with an increased focus on Web3 as a horizontal technology that will permeate across these vertical areas.
- The future of work: As work becomes increasingly distributed while demanding more from employees, workplaces and workers require streamlined tools and empathetic solutions. Tools that enable smarter collaboration, feedback, and professional development will result in greater efficiencies as well as an anchor in our complex world. With the rise of the professional creator class (50 million people consider themselves creators), digital content creators are ready for new platforms, tools, and NFTs beyond art and entertainment that can help them with direct distribution and engagement.
- The future of commerce: Experience with direct-to-consumer brands gives M13 an edge as the firm invests in enablement, pick-and-shovel platforms, power applications, supply chain innovation, and new marketplaces. Value capture has shifted to the infrastructure layer, M13’s area of focus.
- The future of health: Similar to e-commerce, M13 will look to move further down the stack, invest in the infrastructure layer that makes standing up a digital healthcare business easier, and focus on companies turning the promise of value-based healthcare into reality.
- The future of money: As more consumers embrace digitally native assets as a key part of their financial profile, there will be increased demand for new solutions that help them earn income and diversify assets. Solo entrepreneurs and creators also seek new financial services solutions. And tech platforms are increasingly aiding buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants to execute real estate transactions.
With one full-time vertically focused operating partner for every investing partner, M13 enables founders to access strategic expertise in brand, data, marketing, operations, and talent. M13 measures how likely a founder would recommend M13; its NPS score is 91 out of 100.
ABOUT M13
Founded in 2016 with offices in Los Angeles (HQ) and New York and a staff of 32, M13 is a consumer technology venture capital firm that invests in the future of consumer behavior in work, commerce, health, and money. The firm’s 10 full-time partners each bring decades of founder and operator experience essential to founders as they build early-stage startups. M13 seeded seven $1B companies: Cabify, Cue, Daily Harvest, Matterport, Ring, Rothy’s, and Transfix.
M13's 10 partners:
- Carter and Courtney Reum left Goldman Sachs investment banking and started one of the fastest-growing independent spirit brands in the country. The co-authors of the national bestseller “Shortcut Your Startup,” they founded M13 in 2016.
- Karl Alomar founded and exited two companies before leading DigitalOcean (DOCN) as its first COO, scaling the company from ground up to $250M ARR in five years. DOCN has since peaked at a $15B valuation on NYSE.
- Anna Barber was the Managing Director of Techstars LA and a partner at The Fund LA. She is a former founder and certified executive coach.
- Brian Carroll was the COO at Piano Media and advisor and head of finance to various startups including Glamsquad and DigitalOcean.
- Christine Choi worked directly with Sir Richard Branson and executives as SVP to build Virgin Group’s North American portfolio of branded companies and was the first head of communications at Virgin Galactic/Virgin Orbit.
- Lizzie Francis was the COO of sneaker marketplace GOAT, CMO of Gilt, and founding partner of Brilliant Ventures.
- Matt Hoffman was VP, People at DigitalOcean and Return Path (ranked #1 Best Place to work in NYC and #2 in the U.S.). He is the NY lead for PeopleTech Partners, a network of HR leaders driving growth, thought leadership, and innovation in the future of work.
- Rob Olson founded the data engineering, data science and analytics teams at DigitalOcean, where he led the data organization from Series A until pre-IPO. Prior to DigitalOcean, he was a director of analytics and insights in the performance marketing services group at MDC Partners.
- Latif Peracha was a Managing Director at Virgin Group where he led investments in the Americas with a focus on venture and growth technology companies. His portfolio included Ring, Slack, Capsule, Virgin Galactic, and Virgin Orbit.
