Solo GP Ashley Smith announces second $25M fund to back startups in AI, security and more

In Brief

Vermilion Cliffs Ventures announced Wednesday the adjacent of a $25 cardinal Fund II. The steadfast was founded successful 2023 by operator-turned-investor Ashley Smith, who runs it arsenic 1 of the fewer solo women GPs successful task capital. Speaking to TechCrunch, Smith said this money volition proceed the firm’s thesis of backing method founders, specifically those gathering successful AI infrastructure, security, and dev tools. 

It took her astir 4 months to rise the caller money this year, she said, with overmuch of the superior coming from existing investors. The mean cheque size for Fund II volition beryllium betwixt $500,000 and $1 million, and it hopes to put successful astatine slightest 25 companies implicit the adjacent 2 and a fractional years, having already backed six companies. The steadfast antecedently raised a $13 cardinal debut money that backed 35 companies, including the cybersecurity startup Keycard and the AI infrastructure institution CopilotKit. 

Smith said that galore early-stage firms are determination to assistance founders rise the adjacent round, and from her acquisition moving successful selling astatine Twilio, Facebook, GitHub, and GitLab, she hopes to assistance founders with go-to-market strategies that assistance them gain in. “Selling to developers and information teams is its ain discipline, and astir founders larn it the costly mode with time,” she said. “I effort to assistance them skip mistakes I’ve made oregon seen different founders make.”

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