Origin Ventures is reloading with a new venture capital fund that aims to write larger checks for early stage startups in Chicago and across the country.
The Chicago-based company announced Tuesday it raised $130 million for its fifth fund, above its target amount of $100 million. The firm raised an $80 million fourth fund in 2017.
Origin plans to invest in 20 to 23 companies from this latest fund, writing initial checks between $4 million and $6 million, Origin Managing Partner Jason Heltzer said. That's up from $3 million to $5 million from its last fund.
Origin is geographically dispersed, with partners in Chicago, the Bay Area, Utah and Washington, D.C. Heltzer said the positioning helps the firm source deals from all corners of the country.
Founded in 1999, Origin made a name for itself as an early backer of Grubhub, the Chicago-based food-delivery company that went public in 2014 and merged with Just Eat Takeaway.com earlier this year. Its other promising bets include unicorn Cameo; Fountain, which raised $85 million last week; and Tovala, which has raised $70 million.
The firm says it has more than a dozen other portfolio companies valued at $100 million or more.
Its recent exits include Kansas City-based BacklotCars, which sold for $425 million to Kar Global, and Chicago restaurant-tech platform Tock, which was bought by Squarespace for $400 million. The Tock deal in particular shows the precarious nature of building a startup, especially a restaurant-tech startup, during the pandemic. Originally built as a restaurant reservation app, Tock quickly pivoted to launched its Tock to Go product, which let restaurants offer pickup and delivery.
"Creating the pickup and delivery product literally rescued hundreds of restaurants and thousands of restaurant jobs, but it also rescued Tock. It created a new line of revenue and a new product that got a lot of attention while that company was facing high challenges," Heltzer said. "We could have been conducting the funeral for that business. But instead we’re celebrating a very successful exit."
Origin's fund follows several other Chicago VC firms that have raised large funds this year, including Jump Capital's $350 million fund, Lightbank's $180 million fund, 7WireVentures' $150 million fund, KB Partners' $100 million fund and Chicago Ventures' $63 million fund.
Over two decades of investing in Chicago startups has given the firm a first-hand look at the city's tech evolution, as record amounts of venture funding pour into Chicago in 2021.
"A lot of people thought Chicago was left for dead as a startup ecosystem after the dot com crash," Origin Managing Partner Alex Meyer said. "But the story that's unfolded here over the last 10 years has been pretty remarkable."
