Editor's Note: Will Wei is a staff writer for InTheEmpire. ITE is a Streetwise Media property launching in April.
TechStars founder and CEO David Cohen just raised a whopping $28 million towards a second seed fund.
Even though this is a personal fund that's independent from TechStars, Cohen tells us that about half of the money will still go towards companies coming out of TechStars.
"About half will be focused on backing the most promising TechStars companies post program," Cohen tells us in an email. "The rest will go towards my interests such as web infrastructure (Twilio, Sendgrid), human computer interaction (Romotive, Orbotix, Oblong), vertical search/data/organization (Mocavo, Next Big Sound), focused communities (StockTwits) and other interesting innovations that catch my eye (Uber). I am not restricted to only certain themes and I invest nationally."
Cohen, who founded a plethora of software and web tech companies before TechStars, has been investing in "early stage/web software companies" with a $5 million fund he raised in May 2009. He describes himself as an "engaged investor" -- meaning, he wants to know what's going on within the companies he's investing his money in.
TechStars is a three-month long startup accelerator competition, which takes place once each year in New York City, Boston, Boulder, Seattle, and San Antonio.
