Act One Ventures – an early-stage VC firm that created the Diversity Rider, has finished raising its third fund. With $73 million in committed capital, Act One more than tripled the $23 million raised for its second fund and brought its total assets under management (AUM) to $148 million.
This new fund comes at a pivotal moment for the venture capital industry, which is seeing significant contraction with firms shutting down or unable to raise new funds after several years of skyrocketing valuations and mega-funding rounds across all stages.
General Partners Alejandro Guerrero and Michael Silton lead Act One. And the pair began working together in 2013 at the UCLA Venture Fund, and both were software company founders before that. They have invested in 47 companies since Act One’s inception in 2016, with “founder-market fit” as the core element of their investing philosophy.
Fund III will enable Act One to continue to back business software companies at the Seed stage, specifically those in vertical SaaS, fintech, compliance, and e-commerce infrastructure. The firm led four of the five deals made from the new fund, with initial checks ranging from $1 million to $2 million. Act One’s $148 million in AUM is spread across three funds and more than ten special purpose vehicles (SPVs) but it plans to reserve significant capital in Fund III for follow-on financing of portfolio companies.
KEY QUOTE:
“We are grateful to our LPs for believing in us and the work that we have been doing together over the last eight years at Act One. Both Michael and I know what it’s like to build software companies during down markets, and we are looking forward to working with the founders who will become a part of our family over the coming years with this new fund.”
– Act One General Partner Alejandro Guerrero
