Ensemble, an Austin-based venture capital firm, has raised a debut fund of $100 million to invest in early-stage startups in Austin and beyond.
The firm is led by Managing Partners Collin West and Conrad Shang, along with Head of Data Science Gopinath Sundaramurthy. West is also a founding partner at Kauffman Fellows Fund; Shang was previously head of the VC portfolio at UTIMCO; and Sundaramurthy is a former data scientist at IBM.
Ensemble, which counts Austin-based 3D-printing startup Icon among its portfolio, focuses on supporting young companies and founders that they believe have early break-out potential. The firm's approach includes an in-depth, independent report with a review of the senior leadership team that helps identify gaps, opportunities, role adjustments and areas that are working so that companies can reach their next level of growth.
Austin-based insurance-tech startup Spot is also among Ensemble's initial investments. The VC firm led the startup's $25 million round last year.
Ensemble said it uses data and software to improve the odds of selecting the right startups. It invests more than 50% of its management fee in its data platform to find and support founders.
"We have over a decade of learnings in data-driven investing and a platform that continuously ingests billions of data points on startup teams," West said in a tweet. "We proactively build relationships with top teams, often well before there is obvious traction."
