Solo GP Nichole Wischoff raises $20M fund backed by Peter Thiel to put money into ‘unsexy companies’ • TechCrunch

Regardless of shrinking funding into startups in 2022, enterprise capital funds of all sizes are nonetheless being raised. Nevertheless, not many of those are led by solo basic companions (GPs), and though that development is on the rise, even fewer are led by girls or individuals who don’t come from enterprise capital.

The above makes Nichole Wischoff one thing of an exception: Her solo enterprise capital agency Wischoff Ventures closed a second fund of $20 million, a large enhance from her first $5 million fund. Her goal is to put money into 25 to 30 U.S. startups on the pre-seed or seed stage.

Wischoff purposely capped her earlier fund as a result of she was nonetheless working full-time till March as a startup operator, she advised TechCrunch. Now that she is solely devoted to her fund, she plans to put in writing bigger checks of as much as $1 million, up from a earlier $300,000 cap.

This new fund can even be “leaning in closely on B2B,” Wischoff stated. “I inform folks I put money into unsexy companies!”

She’s significantly considering firms that apply an AI/ML or embedded fintech element to massive legacy industries. “Nevertheless, I’ve a really large comfortable spot for industrial automation. Every little thing that makes up nearly all of the GDP within the U.S., I’m very considering.”

Past fintech

Wischoff’s present portfolio consists of firms reminiscent of Coast Pay, Loop, Nuvo, Trustlayer and Vesta – a heavy fintech leaning owing to Wischoff’s background. Nevertheless, the second is ready to broaden this scope. “I do know fintech nicely, however I don’t wish to be pigeonholed into fintech,” she stated.

Earlier than turning into a solo GP, Wischooff was an early worker at lending platform Mix Labs, which went public in 2021, and a part of the founding staff at One Finance, a neobank acquired by Walmart earlier this 12 months.

One’s acquisition resulted in a “big monetary end result” for Wischoff, which led her first into angel investing whereas working at building fintech Built earlier than launching her personal fund with exterior LPs.

Backers of this new fund embody Peter Thiel, Lee Fixel, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Chen, Bain Capital, Byers Capital, Cendana Capital, Crossover, Perception Companions and others.

A number of of those angels and funds had additionally backed Wischoff’s first fund, however the profile of her restricted companions (LPs) has developed over time.

Based on a abstract of an evaluation that Wischoff carried out, household workplaces now account for greater than half of her second fund, in comparison with a couple of third of her first fund. For example, her most up-to-date fund is backed by 4 Extra Capital, the household workplace of late American industrialist and philanthropist Henry Crown.

“I want VCs had been extra open about their LP building,” Wischoff stated in an e-mail. In the identical transparency spirit, she added that it took her seven months to boost her second fund, in comparison with two months for the primary one.

The primary funding out of her second fund went to Stell, a engineering-focused startup based by two girls with a background in aerospace and protection, whose aim is to assist {hardware} engineers and patrons “cut back defects and get components quicker.”

If Wischoff’s subsequent investments are something like Stell, her portfolio is likely to be on monitor to assist what she describes as “American dynamism … the actual one”— a subject we plan to discover along with her shortly in a separate interview.