Four months after closing its biggest fund to date, Kapor Capital wants more. The firm is under new leadership after co-founders Freada and Mitch Kapor left the team, which focuses on funding social-impact companies and founders of color. Now led by Uriridiakoghene “Ulili” Onovakpuri and Brian Dixon, Kapor Capital hopes to raise a $50 million opportunity fund, according to an SEC filing.
The opportunity fund, if closed, would continue Kapor Capital’s new strategy of taking capital from outside investors. Until last year, all of Kapor’s funding came directly from the founding partners; However, in September, the company closed a $126 million Fund 3 backed by investors including Cambridge Associates, Align Impact, Ford Foundation, Bank of America, PayPal and Twilio.
At the time, Dixon told TechCrunch that turning to outside investors helps the company with access; Kapor is now writing checks between $250,000 and $3 million with a primary focus on participating in seed and pre-rounds. Onovakpuri said the larger fund would allow them to invest in more companies with bigger checks.
That being said, with presumably a new chunk of capital to deploy, why would Kapor be considering an opportunity fund? It’s a trend that’s become standard among early-stage VC firms wanting to participate in later rounds of their star portfolio companies. Last year, Khosla debuted as an opportunity fund and last week, Cowboy also raised the first of its kind.
Kapor Capital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
