ACME Capital, an early-stage venture firm investing in pioneering founders, announced the closing of over $300 million for Fund IV and its adjacent Opportunity Fund. The fresh capital will continue to fuel ACME’s model of closely partnering with extraordinary founders early in their journeys, supporting their pursuit of game-changing ideas shaping society, business, and our environment. Along with Fund IV, ACME’s largest fundraise to date, ACME has also deployed $155 million in capital through LP co-investment vehicles over the past year. This brings ACME’s aggregate capital commitments to $1.5 billion.
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“Scale transformation is our cornerstone investment criteria: solving massive challenges, with technology breakthroughs and novel approaches, that aim to benefit society, whether that’s space exploration, quantum computing, medical diagnostics, financial access, or flexible childcare”
Additionally, ACME Capital announced two Partner promotions: Alex Fayette and Aike Ho. Alex has been with the firm since 2016 and focuses on frontier technology. Aike joined the firm in 2017 and has helped lead ACME’s pioneering investments in digital health.
ACME was co-founded by Hany Nada and Scott Stanford. Prior to forming ACME, Nada co-founded GGV in 2000 and Stanford co-founded Goldman Sachs’ Internet Fund in 2011 and Sherpa Capital in 2013 (now managed by ACME). Collectively, the ACME investment team has launched and managed 12 funds throughout their careers. ACME began investing from its $181 million Fund III in 2019. ACME’s Fund IV investment strategy will continue to focus on early-stage investments built on the belief that innovation is driven by platform shifts, with each shift fundamentally changing the way we live, learn, and work.
“Scale transformation is our cornerstone investment criteria: solving massive challenges, with technology breakthroughs and novel approaches, that aim to benefit society, whether that’s space exploration, quantum computing, medical diagnostics, financial access, or flexible childcare,” said Co-founder and Partner Scott Stanford. “We dare our founders to dream big and swing hard, promising them impactful value-add and to be their trusted partner at every step of their journey, from ideation to IPO.”
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Highlights of ACME’s investment approach and prior investments include:
- Notable Events: The ACME team has a long-established track record of early-stage investments, working closely with Founders to realize their potential. The team has collectively made over 200 investments, 26 of which resulted in public offerings and 13 M&A exits. In 2021, there were several such events within ACME’s portfolio, including:
- Quantum computing pioneer IonQ’s SPAC merger in October 2021; ACME invested in the company’s 2019 Series B round
- Talent marketplace Braintrust launched its token in September 2021, just one year after ACME’s initial investment in the company
- Diagnostic testing company Cue Health’s IPO in September 2021; ACME led the Series A as the company’s first institutional investor in 2014
- Space company Astra’s $500 million SPAC merger in July 2021; ACME led the company’s Series A in 2016
- Technology Breakthroughs: Other companies in the ACME portfolio pursuing transformative platform shifts include:
- Uhnder – first digital automotive radar-on-a-chip
- Petra – first robotic utility tunneling through hard geologies
- Forte – first token-based platform for gaming companies
- Avia Games – real money mobile game competition platform
- Tia – new paradigm for delivering modern female healthcare
- Brightside – affordable remote depression and anxiety care
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Diversity and inclusion are core values at ACME, and the firm is proud of its track record of supporting founders and recruiting and hiring candidates from historically underrepresented backgrounds, including women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and immigrants. Highlights of the firm’s approach include:
- Over the past three years, 60% of the firm’s investments have been into companies that have at least one non-male and/or non-white founder
- 68% of ACME’s employees are non-male, non-white, and/or members of the LGBTQ community
“Fund IV reinforces the establishment of the ACME franchise, a team of great investors with a long-proven reputation of delivering excellence to our amazing Founders as well as our Limited Partners. The fact that we raised Fund IV in record time is testament to our strategy,” said Co-founder and Partner Hany Nada. “We couldn’t be more pleased to welcome long-time teammates Aike and Alex to the Partnership. They embody the ACME ethos of deep loyalty and partnership with our portfolio Founders, a relentless work ethic, and humble curiosity.”
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