Seattle-based venture capital firm Flying Fish Partners has closed a $70 million fund.
The fund, Flying Fish's second, was announced Tuesday and follows the firm's initial $37 million fund. Heather Redman, managing director and co-founder at Flying Fish, said Flying Fish started in 2017 but began investing in 2018.
"When you raise your first fund, you are hoping that you are building a firm, but it's a startup really," Redman said. "When you get to raise your second fund, you kind of feel like, 'OK, now we are really a firm.' What we are feeling today is sort of arrival as a firm."
Flying Fish focuses on startups in the artificial intelligence and machine learning spaces, a focus that will continue with its second fund, according to Redman. The firm also focuses on early-stage investments, but Redman said Flying Fish will do follow-on investments in later rounds for its portfolio companies. Flying Fish has invested in companies like the Seattle-based food-making robotics company Picnic and the Seattle-based data science startup YData.
Redman said Flying Fish will continue targeting startups in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada, but the growing importance of artificial intelligence and machine learning will result in investments in other regions as well. The firm has already made 10 investments with its second fund, including some on the East Coast. Redman estimated about 70% of its investments with the new fund will go toward startups in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada.
Flying Fish has also named Adriane Brown as a new managing director. Brown was previously president and chief operating officer at the Bellevue-based research and patent firm Intellectual Ventures. Lisa Nelson, co-founder of M12, is joining Flying Fish as a venture partner on the new fund.
Redman said Flying Fish currently has nine people on its team, including six full-time employees. The firm is looking to add two more full-time investors, Redman said.
"The big message that we've been putting out there is that we're trying to hire the people that will ultimately replace us," Redman said. "If you don't really start thinking as early as possible about succession planning, you won't successfully build a firm. A lot of firms fail because they don't think about that."
