Investors include global wealth management and banking advisory leader UBS in trailblazing move to engage with the venture start-up community

SAN FRANCISCO: Javelin Venture Partners announced today new investors in Javelin Venture Partners V with $125 million primary and associated funds dedicated to investing in technology start-ups. The fund concentrates investments in the areas of AI, SaaS, marketplaces, consumer internet, fin-tech, prop-tech and digital media. Continuing Javelin’s focus on early stage, high growth, capital efficient technology companies, the fund will invest in approximately 20-25 companies, with initial investments ranging from $500 thousand to $4 million, typically in late Seed or early Series A rounds.

“For 15 years, Javelin has invested in some of the most innovative and exciting companies, founded by extremely high caliber entrepreneurs and the new investments embody these characteristics brilliantly. As former founders and operators, we all strive to back companies that we would literally want to join and can consistently help in fundamental ways,” said Jed Katz, Managing Director of Javelin Venture Partners. “We are thrilled to have two breakout companies in Fund V early in the fund’s lifecycle, Pair Eyewear and Fello, and we are honored to continue our long standing partnerships with market leaders across our funds, including Thumbtack, SmartAsset, MasterClass, Carbon Health, Niantic Labs, Mythical Games, Homeward, HighArc, and so many more.”

Noah Doyle, Managing Director of Javelin added, “The pace at which innovation is occurring, in large part due to AI, is genuinely game changing. We will invest in companies that have attained a true technological breakthrough, taken a highly capital efficient approach, and assembled a team that can move mountains. We seek to back companies that leverage AI to innovate in the app and data layers as well as apply AI internally to become exponentially more capital efficient and scalable, key criteria of all Javelin portfolio companies.”

Javelin’s Fund V is backed by a diversified mix of institutional LPs and family offices, some of which are joining for the first time, including UBS’ IB Principal Investments team, which made its inaugural investment in a venture fund.

“We deeply appreciate the confidence UBS has shown in Javelin, and we look forward to a long term and productive partnership, mutually beneficial to UBS and Javelin's portfolio companies. UBS has already collaborated extremely closely with our companies to map everything from financing strategies to AI adoption cycles of large corporations. The increased value-add to our portfolio from UBS' participation will be very meaningful," said Alex Gurevich, Managing Director.

Ben McLean, Head of Venture Capital for Global Banking at UBS, added: "With this inaugural investment in Javelin, we continue to engage closely with the emerging technology start-up community and build relationships with entrepreneurs from the early stages of their journeys working with them across both our investment banking and wealth management capabilities. At UBS, we value the innovation of the founder community, and this is one of the many steps we take to support the innovation ecosystem at all stages."

About Javelin Venture Partners: With over $600 million under management, Javelin Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm specializing in technology based start-ups that leverage key innovations to create scalable, high-growth companies. Javelin Venture Partners' investment professionals are proven new-technology entrepreneurs who focus on identifying exceptional businesses and management teams and helping them achieve great success. The firm operates with the culture of a start-up and with an emphasis on being a true partner to entrepreneurs. Javelin Ventures Partners is located in San Francisco, CA, but invests in start-ups throughout the world. For a list of active portfolio companies, visit Javelin’s website: http://www.javelinvp.com.

Fonte: Business Wire