Today, Ridge Ventures, a leading venture capital fund that backs early-stage enterprise startups, is announcing the close of its fourth fund. The $130M fund was backed by institutional investors including foundations, endowments, funds of funds, insurance companies and prominent family offices; technology executives from leading companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Salesforce, and Oracle; and dozens of founders from across the firm’s portfolio.
Ridge Ventures’ latest fund will be managed by the firm’s expanding investment team, led by Alex Rosen (early investor in Krux, MindMeld, Minted, and Fastly), with Pat Kenealy (former CEO at IDG), Gil Penchina (angel investor in Ripple, Paypal, LinkedIn, Cruise, and Dollar Shave Club), Ben Metcalfe (co-founder of WP Engine, product at Uber), and April Yang (Codeverse and McKinsey). Sales Automation
The investment focus of the fourth fund builds on the firm’s ongoing momentum, which includes early investments in companies that exited, such as Krux (acquired for $800M), MindMeld (acquired for $125M) and NextGames (IPO), as well as emerging breakthrough companies such as Braze, Discord, Fastly, Minted, Safegraph, ThirdLove, Trifacta, and YouEarnedIt.
The firm will continue to invest in enterprise companies with sophisticated software designed to radically change the end-user experience, with a focus on AI, analytics and data, SaaS, infrastructure, martech, and HR tech. Also, Ridge will continue to back select consumer companies that reinforce its enterprise thesis. Portfolio companies will continue to benefit from exclusive access to the firm’s 75-member-strong CXO network, with direct access to Fortune 500 CMOs and CIOs for customer development and market feedback.
Ridge’s portfolio CEOs described their experience working with the team:
“Ridge’s reach within the enterprise market proved extremely powerful, allowing us to get in front of large customers and reach massive scale,” said Tom Chavez, founder and CEO of Krux and a Ridge investor.
“Alex has been an incredible advisor and mentor to both me and YouEarnedIt. He has proven himself to be thoughtful and trustworthy, a supporter of female founders, and someone who will always add value — both personally and for the company’s pursuit of big goals,” said Autumn Manning, co-founder and CEO of YouEarnedIt.
“While working together at Wikia, Gil Penchina and I realized we needed a CDN to help deliver pages instantly. We couldn’t find one, so I built one. Gil immediately identified the larger potential and vision and has been a great ally ever since,” said Artur Bergman founder and CEO of Fastly.
“Early in Minted’s history, fundraising was challenging as few investors believed in the power of crowdsourcing and the importance of differentiated design. Ridge was the only venture firm to recognize Minted’s potential, take a chance on me, and make us an investment offer in our first round,” said Mariam Naficy, founder and CEO of Minted.
About Ridge Ventures
Founded in 2007, Ridge Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund investing in founders who are redefining how the world interacts with data and code. Ridge takes a fast, flexible, and founder-focused approach and backs companies delivering advanced technologies, new distribution models, and incredible user experiences. Ridge Ventures was formerly IDG Ventures USA. To learn more, visit www.ridge.vc and follow us @ridgevc.
Media Contact:
Kayvan Farzaneh for Ridge Ventures
media@ridge.vc
SOURCE Ridge Ventures
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