2048 Ventures Raises $67M Fund II to Lead Pre-Seed Rounds Across US and Canada

We are thrilled to share that we’ve raised an oversubscribed $67M Fund II.

We are lucky to be backed by a truly incredible group of world class founders, top family offices, and venture capital firms. As with Fund I, the core of our LP base are founders and executives from Algorand, Amazon, Bumble, Citrix, DataDog, D.E. Shaw, DigitalOcean, DuoSecurity, Elrond, Google, GitHub, GrubHub, HubSpot, Kelso, Makerbot, Mercari, Morgan Stanley, OpenTable, Oracle, Photobucket, Rackspace, Seamless, Shopify, Stripe, Squarespace, Techstars, Uber, Wattpad, WorldRemit, Zscaler, amongst others.

Mission

At 2048 Ventures, we are on a mission to build a world-class institutional pre-seed firm. We are first check investors, and back founders who are creating technology platform companies of the future, across US and Canada.

Focus

We approach pre-seed through a thesis and thematic lens. Our core thesis is that platform companies will deliver outsized, venture scale returns. This is why we focus on APIs, infrastructure, marketplaces, and specific types of vertical SaaS across industries and sectors.

Because we are a thematic investor, we lead rounds and are high conviction. We plan to invest Fund II over the next 3 years and make 60 investments. Our initial check size will be $500K - $1.5M.

The spaces and verticals that we are excited about for Fund II include: Biotechnology, Digital Health, AI/ML, Robotics, AR/VR, Blockchain, Security, Energy, Mobility, Logistics, Fintech, Marketplaces, Productivity, Culture, and Communities.

Team

We are so excited to have the opportunity to grow and expand our team for Fund II.

We are thrilled to share that Neha Khera is now a General Partner at 2048 Ventures. Neha is an experienced early stage investor with an exceptional track record including very early investments in ApplyBoard, Benchsci, Mejuri, and FightCamp. She has the unique ability to spot opportunities, and founders rave about working with her. Neha works exceptionally hard, and is incredible in everything she puts her mind to: from investing to strategy to internal infrastructure projects. We are so excited to continue to build 2048 Ventures together with her.

We are happy to share that Zann Ali is back as a Principal for his second fund with 2048 Ventures. Zann joined the firm as an Associate when we were just starting out in 2019 and played an instrumental role in helping us grow, establish our brand and create our systems, processes and infrastructure. In Fund I, Zann led our investments in Walnut, Turbodega and Impilo, among others, all while doing an awesome job managing our finances and operations. Zann is looking forward to leading more investments in Fintech, Marketplaces, SaaS, and other areas.

We are delighted to announce that Daniella Cohen is joining 2048 Ventures as a Senior Associate to help run our biotech, digital health, and deep tech practices. Daniella is graduating from Princeton with a degree in Neuroscience and is no stranger to venture. She is currently a Managing Director at Rough Draft Ventures, and previously worked with startups at Techstars NYC.

In addition, we hired an incredible candidate to lead our biotechnology practice. She will be joining us later this year and we will make a separate announcement when she joins. We are also looking to bring on board a Principal to lead our Deep Tech Practice.

2048 Ventures Fund I highlights

In Fund I, we backed 50 companies. This portfolio is still very early, but we are happy to share that the 50 companies we backed have raised more than $200M and are valued at over $1B.

Here are some 2048 Ventures Fund I metrics:

Here are some companies we’ve backed that are seeing early growth and have raised Series A’s:

Founder Love

We invest at the earliest stage and work incredibly hard to help our founders get off the ground.

We are proud to have an NPS score of 100 from our founders three years in a row. Here is what some of our founders have said about working with us:

"Alex is one of the hardest working investors you can have on your cap table. He's not only invested in the business, he is invested in the founders.” - Liz Giorgi, Co-Founder / CEO soona.

"Quick to compute, high conviction, and extremely helpful - especially for first-time founders. Puts in the time to help companies. Cannot recommend 2048 enough.” - Milad Dagher, Co-Founder / CEO nomic bio.

"Laser sharp, thoroughly tactical, consistently clear, overly generous, and deeply empathetic...it will take you no time at all to realize that.” - Danielle Cohen-Shohet, Co-Founder / CEO Gloss Genius

“Neha changed the trajectory of our company from the moment 2048 Ventures joined our journey. We immediately saw what 'high conviction investor' really means.” - Maria Pavlovic Rivas, Co-Founder / CEO of eli health

"I consider Zann an extension of my founding team and I know I can call or text him any time. I have over 25 investors on my cap table, but Zann is always my first call.” - Roshan Patel, Co-Founder / CEO, Walnut

"Meeting 2048 was a fundamental moment in our journey. From sourcing talent to guiding us through tricky conversations, the team at 2048 is always ready to dive in and help out.”  - Liza Marie Assenza, Co-Founder / CEO Impacked Packaging

"The definition of a 'Founding Investor'...invests early and with the deep conviction of a co-founder. He has huge empathy and a deep personal understanding of what it takes to run and build an early stage startup.” - Connor Murphy, Co-Founder / CEO Bridge

"Perhaps the most influential mentor I've ever had. Consistently challenges me to think from first principles, to reason clearly and act methodically in business. Above all, I know they truly believe in me, my team, and our vision.” - Christopher Li, Co-Founder, CEO BioBox

"Alex is very generous with resources: time, expertise, advice, and access to his extensive network of other founders and investors. We love working with him.” - Monika Jaroszonek, Co-Founder / CEO Ratio.city

How to Pitch Us

We are not a consensus based investment team.

What this means is that we do not vote on deals and we do not block or veto each other. Instead, we have created a strong process where every investor at the firm makes their own decision, while the team supports them through the process.

Our goal is to be approachable and easy to reach. You can always pitch us through a mutual connection, but more importantly, you can pitch each one of us directly through the Pitch Me links on our team page. Take a few minutes to review our interests and backgrounds to decide which one of us might be the best to evaluate your pitch. But don’t worry, even if there is someone else at the firm who is a better fit, we will route it accordingly. We are committed to reviewing every single cold pitch we receive, but due to sheer volume, we are not always able to reply.

In addition, we are committed to closing the loop with 100% of the founders that we actually meet. This means that if you meet any one of us, you will hear back within a week regarding next steps or, if it’s not a fit, we’ll also be transparent and let you know.

We are so thrilled to have the opportunity to continue to back technology companies at the earliest stage. If you are a visionary founder looking for your first, lead, high conviction investor please reach out to us.