Distributed Ventures Closes $100M Fund and Plans To Accelerate Growth with Key Leadership Hire
CHICAGO – Early-stage venture capital firm, Distributed Ventures, announced the close of the company’s first fund under the Distributed Ventures banner. The fund closed $100M in total commitments, the company’s largest to-date, from an exceptional range of investors including strategic limited partners – inclusive of insurance carriers, insurance brokerages, current as well as former insurance executives and private family offices. The fund will focus on early-stage venture investments spanning insurtech, healthtech, and fintech verticals.
The Distributed Ventures investment thesis is to discover, invest in and rapidly accelerate the most promising startups in insurtech, fintech, and digital health that have the potential to positively affect risk in each respective vertical.
The Distributed Ventures investment thesis is to discover, invest in and rapidly accelerate the most promising startups in insurtech, fintech, and digital health that have the potential to positively affect risk in each respective vertical. The firm provides capital to late Seed and Series A companies while catalyzing growth through Distributed Ventures’ strategic LP base and the team’s expertise as former founders, investors, and operators.
Distributed Ventures was born out of NFP Ventures with the goal of helping entrepreneurs demonstrate product-market fit and accelerate their commercial traction via diverse distribution channels. As a result, their investments align with their strategic partners’ subject matter expertise, market perspectives, and distribution strength.
“I am incredibly pleased with our fundraising outcome. This milestone serves as testament to the value we create for our founders and ultimately the return we generate for limited partners. This capital will allow us to partner with another set of additional founders and continue to expand our team,” said Shawn Ellis, Managing Partner at Distributed Ventures.
With the close of this fund and their growing AUM, Distributed Ventures continues to expand its leadership team and influence. In May they welcomed tech community-building veteran Mandy Yoh as their Chief of Staff.
“The Distributed Ventures team DNA is a special blend of investing, operating and strategic expertise. To complement what we’ve built, we were seeking a leader with a unique background spanning early-stage operating experience, VC experience, marketing / branding and community building that could amplify storytelling around our fund’s brand and the great things happening in our portfolio,” said Adam Blumencranz, Partner at Distributed Ventures. “Mandy brings over a decade of experience building and scaling integrated marketing / community functions to create affinity within targeted ecosystems. We feel incredibly fortunate that she has chosen to join our team.”
As Chief of Staff, Mandy will focus on brand growth and expanding investment opportunities for the firm. Mandy began her entrepreneurial tech career as the first hire at SpotHero where she led the community management of their ecosystem to help drive growth for the company. Most recently, Mandy oversaw the end-to-end experience for the global startup community at the worlds #1 private tech incubator, 1871 as well as the build out of the community / platform function at a Chicago mid-market private equity firm.
“What attracted me to Distributed Ventures was the position of the fund and what opportunities are ahead based on the foundation that’s been built by their incredibly dedicated team. My expertise and interests are highly aligned with the team’s strategic vision and culture, and I felt there was a terrific opportunity given this exciting moment for the firm with the recent close of its fund,” said Mandy Yoh, Chief of Staff at Distributed Ventures. “I have worked with hundreds of startups and numerous VC firms and was impressed by the extreme focus that Distributed Ventures places on operational efficacy and the relational component between funder and founder.”
The firm has worked with companies across the U.S. and has led 6 successful acquisitions, and an IPO within their portfolio.
About Distributed Ventures
Distributed Ventures is a Seed to Series A-focused venture fund that invests in entrepreneurs as they transform the future of risk across Insurtech, Digital Health and Benefits, and Fintech. As former founders, investors, and operators, the Distributed Ventures team provides deep subject matter and early-stage operational expertise to help companies find success from day one. We work closely with our strategic LPs who lend distribution support, apply their human capital expertise and leverage existing product and data to accelerate growth. Select representative investments to date include Indio Technologies (acquired by Applied Systems), Armadillo, Kindbody, Tuned and Wingspan. For more information, visit distributedvc.com.
