Tola Capital – a venture capital firm investing in the next generation of enterprise software enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) – recently announced the closing of Tola Capital III, LP at $230 million. This fund will be deployed to Seed and early-stage startups that are revolutionizing the enterprise software industry with AI. The latest fund brings Tola Capital’s total funds raised to date to $688 million.
Tola Capital backs early-stage founders building the next wave of AI companies. And the team has overseen over a dozen exits from its portfolio companies, including Clipchamp (acquired by Microsoft), OSIsoft (acquired by AVEVA), hybris (acquired by SAP). It has sold portfolio companies to numerous other enterprise players, including Oracle, Cisco, Verizon, Mastercard, and Rapid7.
The firm was founded in 2010 by experienced software operators at the forefront of cloud computing’s rise. Before co-founding Tola Capital, managing director Sheila Gulati owned the enterprise IT strategy for Microsoft, launched the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, and ran the database and developer tools businesses. And Gulati utilizes her deep knowledge of how software can change and grow businesses to help drive the growth of AI companies alongside her team. Tola’s team comprises former operators who built and led cloud and enterprise software businesses at Microsoft and also invested in, partnered with, or acquired dozens of now-leading enterprise software companies.
Tola has been at the forefront of the rise of AI since its founding and has invested in startups leveraging AI, including Pulumi, Klarity, Simpplr, and Nooks. Going forward, the firm will use the new capital to invest in companies specializing in multiple areas of AI, including enterprise scaffolding for AI, responsible AI, AI security, app layer AI, and others.
With its third fund, Tola Capital aims to invest in 25 to 30 companies globally. And the average check size will range from $1 million to $4 million for Seed stage companies and $5 million to $15 million for Series A and B. The firm has already deployed capital to nine companies: Arcus, Bluebean, ESG Flo, FeatureByte, Fetcher, Holistic AI, Langsafe, Lumeus, and Zilla.
KEY QUOTES:
“The cloud was the catalyst for incredible value creation over the past decade. Having been at the forefront of that shift and opportunity, I foresee the same potential when it comes to AI, along with some key differences. AI will have a much broader impact – changing the way that we all work, creating tremendous productivity gains. It will also happen in a much faster timeframe. At Tola Capital, we are partnering with founders who are leading this transformation and ushering in the new world of work.”
- Sheila Gulati, co-founder and managing director of Tola Capital
“The Tola team was a true partner in our journey with Clipchamp, providing guidance and resources as we built out our go-to-market function and product roadmap for the enterprise. I am excited for the additional companies that will benefit from Tola’s third fund and expertise, just as we did.”
- Alexander Dreiling – who is the founder and CEO of Tola portfolio company Clipchamp – which was acquired by Microsoft in 2021 and is now Microsoft’s core video product. And like many founders in the Tola portfolio who have experienced liquidity events, Dreiling is now an investor in Tola.
