Refinery Ventures Closes $37 Million Fund II

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 18, 2022
  • Refinery Ventures recently announced that it has closed Fund II with $37 million in new funds. These are the details.

Refinery Ventures recently announced that it has closed Fund II with $37 million in new funds. Building on the firm’s strong track record of investing in hypergrowth companies including Astronomer, Tealbook, and Torch, among others, Fund II will focus on companies that are at a critical stage of growth which Refinery refers to as “Early Scale”.

Through strong demand from new and existing limited partners, Refinery Ventures Fund II is over 2 times larger than the firm’s fully invested first fund. Since 2017, Refinery Ventures portfolio companies have reached significant growth milestones including raising additional funding rounds, totaling $300 million, dramatically increasing valuations, and doubling customer and employee growth. And Refinery has early exits with Engage Talent and HALO Health, which were acquired by Workforce Logiq and symplr, respectively.

Refinery Ventures had experienced tremendous growth in the last year with the addition of three new venture partners Dale Fuller, Trishan Arul, and Justin Deja. And the firm formed a strategic partnership with OneDefense, where Stephen Rodriguez joins as a venture partner, to invest in entrepreneurs that support dual-use technologies including Edgybees and Vantage Robotics.

KEY QUOTES:

“Throughout my career as a founder and as an investor, I’ve experienced many successes and many challenges. I learned that leadership is developed by overcoming adversity, and people who have worked in hyper-growth companies understand what it looks like and feels like. As I traveled back and forth from the Bay Area to the midwest while CEO of ShareThis, I began to recognize that very few entrepreneurs outside Silicon Valley have the hyper-growth experience, and therefore don’t know exactly what to expect. The key is to bring to bear this experience to help startups navigate the crucial step after Seed funding, which we like to call Early Scale. We put this formula to work with Fund I and look forward to building off of the success in Fund II.”

— Tim Schigel, managing partner of Refinery Ventures

“Raising venture capital isn’t solely about money. It’s about partnering with a firm that brings experience, expertise, and the resources to help drive success. When I met Tim, I quickly realized that he not only has helped build hypergrowth companies, but that he has navigated a hypergrowth company, which is a huge win for Tealbook. Tim has been instrumental in helping us raise additional funding and the closing of our latest $50 million round is a testament to the success of our relationship. I look forward to seeing the possibilities of Refinery Fund II and its new investments.”

— Stephany Lapierre, founder and CEO of Tealbook