Fort Ross Ventures announces first closing of $200m late-stage fund

Fort Ross Ventures announces first closing of $200m late-stage fund

Published: 18-11-2021 09:31:00 | By: Pie Kamau | hits: 3942 | Tags:

Fort Ross Ventures, an international venture-capital firm focused on startups in the U.S. and Israel, announced the $100 million first closing of its late-stage fund. Originally announced in November 2020 with a total target of up to $200 million, the late-stage fund is focused on investing in the Series D+ rounds of industry-leading companies with the potential to conduct an IPO or strategic sales within 2-3 years. In addition to a strong footprint in the U.S. and Israel, Fort Ross Ventures is also expanding to other regions, adding Europe to its target geography.

To support the increased investment activity from the late-stage fund, Fort Ross also named Ratan Singh, formerly a Principal, as a Partner in the firm. Singh brings a wealth of expertise in the consumer and enterprise technology spaces to his new role, spending more than a decade prior to joining Fort Ross honing his investment philosophies leading private and alternative investments for Cavallino Capital, CKC Partners and BigFoot Holdings, three U.S.-based international family offices with more than $2 billion in combined assets under management devoted to venture and growth stage segments.

"As an early Fort Ross team member, I have been fortunate to invest and work alongside amazing founders and companies, such as Mynd, Ridecell, Roofstock, Clearcover, Rescale, and Insurify," said Singh. "I am excited about Fort Ross expanding our investment thesis to include a late-stage fund, and becoming a multi-stage investment platform supporting all stages of growth for the start-up ecosystem. As a Partner, I am enthusiastic about investing in disruptive technologies that have scaled to be industry-leading solutions in their segment. There is a tremendous opportunity to invest in later-stage companies to deepen their technological and market moats as they stay private longer."

As part of the first close, Fort Ross Ventures' late-stage fund has invested in Ladder Life, the digital life insurance company offering flexible term coverage in minutes within their recently announced $100 million Series D. The fund's ongoing investment priorities include fintech, cloud technologies, AI/machine learning, business process automation services, edtech, foodtech and tech enabled businesses, with a strategic aim of backing companies that have raised at least $50 million in equity capital and are valued at $500 million or more.

Victor Orlovski, Founder and Managing Partner, Fort Ross Ventures: "We're extremely pleased with the reception to the late-stage fund, as there has been enough demand that we expect it will end up being upsized. It's long been our belief that our international connections to connect founders with the best tech talent and expertise in business development can be just as beneficial to more mature companies as they are for early-stage startups, and we see the fund's success as validation of our winning formula."

www.fortross.vc