New York-based venture capital firm Twelve Below recently announced it closed an $80 million second early-stage fund and a $28 million opportunity fund. Twelve Below will continue investing in seed, and pre-seed investments in companies focused on fintech, healthcare, energy, SMB, and consumer sectors. The opportunity fund enables the firm to double down on investments in existing portfolio companies.
The firm was launched in 2021 by Taylor Greene (formerly a Partner at Collaborative Fund and prior to that, a Partner at Lerer Hippeau). Shortly after, he was joined by Byron Ling (who was previously a Partner at Canaan and prior to that a Principal at Primary Venture Partners). The pair are long-time collaborators, whose previous joint investments include Mirror, Papa and K Health.
Twelve Below’s investment philosophy marks a return to the tenets of the older age of venture capitalism: combining a small fund with high ownership, a personalized approach with founders, and a focus on carefully nurtured networks. And Twelve Below aims to lead or co-lead pre-seed and seed financings with the goal of earning a 10% to 15% ownership stake in the core investments from the fund. The firm’s total AUM across both funds now stands at $160 million.
Twelve Below’s portfolio includes a number of breakthrough companies, including Accrue Savings, Odyssey Energy, Croissant, Campus and Truehold. And over 60% of its portfolio has already raised follow on capital. The firm is backed by a range of LPs, from large university endowments, institutional fund of funds, and large family offices.
KEY QUOTES:
“Byron and I have been investing on the ground in New York City for the last decade, and met over 20,000 founders. These meetings not only trained us to spot overlooked talent and ideas, but also confirmed that the best early stage founders continue to optimize for trust, and appreciate our willingness to invest time, as well as capital, to support breakthrough companies.”
— Taylor Greene, Partner at Twelve Below
“Our mission is to be the earliest believers in a founding team during the most formative phase of company building. Our personalized approach focuses on the highest impact needs – whether that’s being a sounding board on strategy, or helping a founder close their earliest team members.”
– Byron Ling, Partner at Twelve Below
