Inspired Capital, the early-stage firm founded in 2019 by Alexa von Tobel and Penny Pritzker, has closed its fourth fund with $450 million in commitments. The new capital will bring the firm’s assets under management to nearly $1.4 billion, von Tobel tells TechCrunch.
The raise comes as venture dollars are piling up on the West Coast. Between 2020 and the end of 2025, the Bay Area had raised $352 billion for VC funds — roughly 46% of all U.S. venture capital, according to PitchBook. Last year, that percentage shot up even higher, with Bay Area firms locking down 55% of the total new commitments to U.S. venture funds.
New York-based Inspired’s new fund is a reminder that capital is accruing elsewhere, too. In fact, Inspired is growing: it closed a $330 million third fund in early 2024, following a $281 million second fund and its $200 million debut fund.
Despite having money to invest, von Tobel says the firm is sticking to its formula. Inspired backs roughly 10 companies a year, which can be anywhere between “napkin” stage and Series A, writing checks between $1 million and $15 million. Pritzker, the former U.S. Commerce Secretary, remains an active co-founder in the firm.
With six years of investing experience under her belt, von Tobel is now willing to talk about results, too. She says that 12 companies across the firm’s first two funds have become unicorns, representing about 15% of the portfolio. “Ten of them have passed $100 million in revenue, four have crossed $400 million and one has crossed $500 million,” she says.
Perhaps more relevant to the firm’s limited partners, Inspired counts more than 10 exits, including MosaicML (acquired for $1.3 billion in June by Databricks), DeepTune (which Mercor acquired in July for an undisclosed amount), and Saturn (snapped up last year by Snap).
Another portfolio company, TeamShares, a fintech startup that buys up other businesses, went public in June through a special purpose acquisition vehicle. Von Tobel claimed the firm’s second fund ranks in the top 5% of its cohort by all metrics, though she declined to share cash-on-cash returns, citing the relative newness of the firm.
To be clear, Inspired is not squarely focused on New York. Its portfolio is split roughly 45% East Coast, 45% West Coast and 10% elsewhere. That balance reflects the way that startups grow, she says. “A company that’s getting quite big in Silicon Valley often wants and needs a second talent footprint, and New York becomes really important,” she says.
Of course, for others, New York is the only choice. On that front, von Tobel says she has been pitched by at least 10 founders in recent weeks who selected New York specifically to avoid hiring job-hopping employees who have little allegiance to any one company, as is often the case in San Francisco.
Von Tobel definitely doesn’t dismiss the Valley. She says that someone from her team is on the ground in the Bay Area every week, and that she’s in the area routinely, too. “We have to pay extreme attention to both [coasts],” she says.
As for strategy, she describes a firm that picks themes early and avoids the herd as much as possible. While many companies chase AI applications, for example, Inspired has backed physical AI and quantum computing startups, she says. Inspired came upon the creator-commerce platform ShopMy by following that thesis.
Where Inspired isn’t so different is in its penchant for backing serial entrepreneurs. Von Tobel says roughly a third of the firm’s portfolio is by repeat founders.
Asked about her stance on secondaries, she says Inspired will sell “a few chips” once companies reach multi-billion-dollar valuations, but it tends to keep more than 90% of its ownership, mostly using secondaries to add to positions in breakaway portfolio companies. That said, Inspired will lead later primary rounds if it misses an early one, and it has written checks for companies that are already valued above $100 million, according to von Tobel.
Von Tobel, who launched her online financial learning platform LearnVest on the TechCrunch 50 stage in 2009 and sold the company six years later to Northwestern Mutual for a reported $375 million, insists that Inspired’s strongest edge is patience and its ability to combine the best of both coasts.
“We bring West Coast ambition with East Coast financial discipline,” she says.
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Loizos has been reporting on Silicon Valley since the late ’90s, when she joined the original Red Herring magazine. Previously the Silicon Valley Editor of TechCrunch, she was named Editor in Chief and General Manager of TechCrunch in September 2023. She’s also the founder of StrictlyVC, a daily e-newsletter and lecture series acquired by Yahoo in August 2023 and now operated as a sub brand of TechCrunch.
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