Slow Ventures, an early stage VC firm founded by former Facebook executives, just closed on a new $145 million fund.
Slow, which has backed more than 150 start-ups including Slack, Cadre, Dropbox, Casper, and Allbirds, revealed the fund, its third, via a blog post on November 17th. In addition to the latest fundraising, Slow also announced a new partner, Scott Marlette, who launched Facebook Photos and its famous photo-tagging product before cofounding GoodRx-an app that offers pricing and discounts on prescription drugs.
Slow's founders, Kevin Colleran, Dave Morin, Sam Lessin (all early Facebook employees) started the VC firm in 2009 as a side project to pool their personal angel investing bets.
Slow grew quickly. As I wrote previously: Colleran, Lessin, and Morin tapped their tech Rolodex to raise money from top entrepreneurs and executives in the business. For its more than 120 LPs, Slow acts like an angel mutual fund-scouting deals, performing legal review, and doing all the tedious back office duties.
Slow previously raised $65 million in April in 2015. The latest round brings total assets under management to $250 million.
Slow takes a more community approach than most VCs with limited partners sharing an active role in the firm. Founders who win Slow's backing get more than money, all of Slow's LPs-which, according to sources, include some of the biggest names in tech-must agree to help start-ups with sales, scale, product, and partnerships.
When Kevin Colleran, Dave Morin, and Sam Lessin decided to form Slow Ventures, they had one mission: to give the founders in their portfolio time to build sound companies with a strong foundation.
More than five years later, the firm has raised its third fund, hired two more investing partners, and made more than 200 investments in some of the hottest startups of the moment, including Allbirds, Casper, and Slack.
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