Isaac Kato, former managing director of Techstars Seattle, has launched a venture capital firm called Two Ravens.
According to a December filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Two Ravens is headquartered in Bellevue and is looking to raised a $20 million fund. Two Ravens says on its website it is investing in pre-seed and early-stage startups with "extraordinary founders from non-obvious backgrounds."
"There’s a class of tech founders who have all the attributes that make a great early-stage team," the website reads. "But, because they don’t fit traditional founder stereotypes, or lack the obvious pedigree stamps on their passports, or simply because they live outside of the major US venture metros, they’re often overlooked by conventional VCs."
Two Ravens says it will generally invest $250,000 to $500,000 in its portfolio companies. The firm is looking for diverse founders, immigrant founders and founders outside major U.S. venture hubs.
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Two Ravens didn't immediately respond to a request for more information.
Kato led Techstars Seattle as managing director for about three years before stepping down in September 2022. He also led the blockchain-focused sister program Filecoin Techstars Accelerator. At the time Kato left Techstars Seattle, he said he was taking a sabbatical but was "working on something in the investment space" for his next steps.
Techstars Seattle in February confirmed it was shutting down as the larger Techstars network decided to double down on larger markets and phase out some smaller venture markets. Techstars launched in Seattle in 2010 and had graduated more than 140 companies, including big names like Remitly and Outreach.
Prior to Techstars, Kato was the president of Seattle-based Mighty AI, which provided training data to computer vision models, for more than a year. The company was acquired by Uber in 2019. Before that, Kato co-founded Verne Global, which operates data centers in Iceland that are carbon neutral, according to Verne's website.
Two Ravens lists Carson Nye, previously an investment manager at Techstars, as its other employee. The firm says it has already invested in companies like The Folklore, a commerce company focused on diverse brands, and She Matters, a platform for Black women experiencing postpartum depression or anxiety.
Funding for diverse founders remains a problem in venture capital and tech. According to a November 2022 report from nonprofit Diversity VC and Penn State University, only 1.87% of venture capital investments from the firms surveyed went to women- and minority-owned startups. An April report from Deloitte, meanwhile, noted women made up 26% of investment professionals in 2022, while Black employees made up just 5% of investment professionals.
