Impressed Capital secures $330M fund to take enterprise capital ‘back to the studs’

Impressed Capital is celebrating its fifth birthday with the closing of its Impressed Capital Fund III with $330M in capital commitments. This new quantity brings the agency’s whole property below administration to just about $900 million.

The New York-based early-stage enterprise agency was based in 2019 by entrepreneurs Alexa von Tobel and Penny Pritzker. They went on to boost $200 million for a debut fund after which $281 million for its second fund in 2021. Companion Lucy Deland and COO Mark Batsiyan are additionally co-founders.

Fund III is backed by institutional traders, together with main endowments, pensions and foundations.

“For me it’s sort of a real ‘pinch me moment,’ because I decided to devote the next many decades of my career toward finding the entrepreneurs that want to completely change what’s possible,” von Tobel advised TechCrunch. “Venture capital, when properly deployed is actually the most powerful economic engine that the world has ever seen. And as true stewards of venture deployed properly, it is one of the most powerful ways to change the world.”

Impressed Capital leads investments of pre-seed to Collection A into what von Tobel, managing associate, described as “fearless founders who are solving the hardest challenges facing humanity.” The agency writes checks between $1 million and $15 million.

It has amassed a portfolio of over 50 corporations which have gone on to boost a cumulative $1.5 billion in follow-on capital. Notable investments embody property tech startup Habi, now valued at $1 billion; worker possession firm Teamshares; enterprise banking firm Rho; and Paytient, which has developed a system for making healthcare funds over time.

Like earlier funds, von Tobel expects to spend money on between 25 and 30 corporations with the third fund, which will likely be round 10 investments per yr.

Impressed Capital can even proceed to spend money on a variety of corporations constructing “An Inspired Future,” which is the agency’s thesis round “innovations that move the world dramatically forward.” That would embody, for instance, the digitization of the economic economic system, retooling the fashionable workforce, the monetization layer of the web, unlocking AI’s potential AI and monetary equilibrium in a risky society.

As a part of the brand new fund, Impressed Capital wrote a manifesto that highlights how the enterprise capital agency thinks, what it believes in and what it’s on the lookout for. Amongst that’s how the agency likes to construct large corporations which can be embracing very large dangers and fixing big issues, von Tobel mentioned.

“There will always be huge, meaty problems that must be solved for humanity,” she mentioned. “We look for founders who are fearless, reject the status quo and believe the world deserves better. Entrepreneurs who want to do things that matter know that we are here, and ready and waiting to be their partners and their teammates. In some ways, it’s like going back to the studs of what venture really is.”