Let the seed funding flow.
Quake Capital, a startup accelerator and venture capital firm that operates in Austin, New York, Los Angeles and Seattle, announced it's raising a new, $100 million fund to invest in early-stage startups in Austin and beyond.
The forthcoming fund follows two priors -- a $15 million fund that recently closed and an initial $18 million round that got Quake started after its 2016 launch.
It's not yet certain how long Quake will need to fulfill the new fund, but it's poised to fuel dozens of startups in Quake's future cohorts. Each startup accepted into the program gets a $150,000 note, which is supplemented later with an additional $50,000 in seed money.
The new capital adds to an expanding investment and accelerator ecosystem in Austin, and it gives local startups additional access to early-stage funding at a time when several of Austin's venture capital firms have matured to participate in larger rounds.
Quake operates a 12-week long accelerator that helps startups prepare for traditional venture capital funding and rapid scaling. It looks for a variety of startups, including software as a service, B2B, consumer packaged goods and beyond.
It is also putting an increased emphasis on backing founders of color and those with military backgrounds.
In addition to the new fund, Quake has added new talent.
Most recently, it brought on Jason Fernandez as managing partner. Fernandez, a former director of global online solutions and venture capital at Dell, has played a variety of roles in the local tech and startup scene -- as well as on Wall Street. That includes stints at Bryker Partners, Holtzman Partners and BASE Equity Partners.
Quake has also added Shaquille Gould, a co-founder at Tagd and former Google enterprise development leader, as a principal, and it promoted Colin Brady to senior associate in Austin.
The firm was founded in 2016 in New York by Glenn Argenbright, Chad Burgess, Adam Cragg and Brandon Maier. It moved its headquarters to Austin last summer.
Quake's first Austin class, which launched last August, included Aquasprouts, Brobe, CarServ, Locus, Man Outfitters, PathwayAI and Walletcard.
Fernandez said Quake has already received 1,400-plus applications for its forthcoming accelerator -- about double what it had last year at that stage. A second round of applications are due March 11.
