OkCupid co-founder Sam Yagan and Chicago venture investor and tech executive Steve Farsht have raised $37 million of a planned $39.9 million for Corazon Capital II, a second fund that more than doubles the size of their first fund, raised in 2014.
The new fund was disclosed in a regulatory filing, Wednesday.
The $13 million Corazon I, also led by Yagan and Farsht, was known for bringing in local entrepreneurs as limited partners, including Inventables founder CEO Zach Kaplan. This time, Corazon has 38 limited partners in the new fund, according to the regulatory filing. The first fund listed 25.
Corazon Capital also has three venture partners based in New York. Yagan is now CEO of Shoprunner. Both he and Farsht are on the board of Techstars Chicago.
The firm has participated in Series A-sized rounds for several Chicago startups. Corazon's past Chicago startup portfolio includes Opternative, the online eye exam co.; ShiftGig, the digital marketplace for bartenders and servers; Inventables, maker of 3D carving tools and software; and Curiosity.com, an online education company spun off from Discovery Communications.
“You'll see us writing bigger checks,” Yagan told Crain's, which first reported on the new fund, earlier Wednesday. “In our first fund, we'd do $150,000 to $250,000. Now it will be more like $250,000 to $500,000."
At those amounts, Corazon won't necessarily be leading rounds. Farsht told Crain's the firm plans to do about 30 deals out of the new fund.
Yagan couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
