Pack Ventures, a venture capital firm that targets founders with ties to the University of Washington, is raising its second fund.
Ken Horenstein, Pack's founder and partner, said the firm has raised more than $5 million so far and is looking to raise $30 million. He added that accredited investors can put money into the new fund, which was announced Tuesday, and even though Pack is looking for limited partners, or LPs, who are passionate about UW entrepreneurs, investors don't have to be UW alumni.
"A lot of venture funds don't publicize when they are 20% raised. They wait until they are 80% or 90% raised before they say anything, but this is very intentional for us because we want to have a big LP base," Horenstein said. "This isn't like there is this big curtain in front of our VC process, and you don't know what we're doing. We want people to come and be involved."
Horenstein added that Pack would like to raise this second fund in the next six months. Pack has already invested in two companies through its second fund, but Horenstein didn't name those companies. The aim is to back roughly 30 to 40 companies. Pack's average check sizes are between $200,000 and $750,000.
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Pack launched in 2022. The firm targets students, faculty and alumni from UW, and it's open to entrepreneurs both on and off campus. Pack invests in the idea, pre-seed and seed stage.
So far, Pack has raised more than $10 million from over 100 total investors between its two funds. Horenstein said the firm has invested about $5 million in total already. The second fund so far has more than 50 investors. Pack has 29 portfolio companies, according to its website.
Pack's investors include Cameron Borumand, general partner at the Bellevue-based venture firm Fuse, Court Lorenzini, the founder and former CEO of Docusign, and Mamtha Banerjee, a managing director at JPMorgan Chase.
Pack's other partner is Ti Zhao, who co-founded the therapy tech startup Kip. The firm also has three venture fellows from UW and a small office within UW. Although Pack is independently run, UW and Pack signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this year making Pack the preferred venture firm of UW and its incubator, CoMotion Labs.
Pack's portfolio companies include biotechs such as Talus Bio and Monod Bio, as well as the health care chatbot company Outbound AI.
"We can get involved before the company is really built," Horenstein said. "We want to be one of the very first investors these founders call."
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