Early-stage venture capital fund Tidal Ventures has appointed Georgina Turner as a partner as the VC continues to raise $80 million for its third seed-stage fund.
Turner, a former investment banker, has been a director at Tidal since 2019, leading six deals and working on more than 20 others, including exits and IPOs.
Tidal Partner Wendell Keuneman said she was proud of her promotion to partner.
“We are proud to announce Georgie’s promotion to partner, having worked with her through numerous deals. She has excelled as an operator and investor in times of growth and adversity, and has been instrumental in expanding Tidal’s team,” he said.
“As a partner, she has recruited and acquired talent that will continue to support the end-to-end founding experience we strive for – from initial deal sourcing, screening, investment and portfolio management. We look forward to seeing her continued growth in the Fund and building long-term relationships with the founders and the startup ecosystem.”
The team has evolved significantly since the first Seed Fund 1 (2016), led by Murray Bleach and Grant McCarthyaccompanied by Wendell Keuneman two years later (2018). in 2020, Andrea Kowalskicjoined Tidal Seed 2 Fund as a Partner and is now a Venture Partner.
Turner said diversity and inclusion are built into Tidal’s DNA.
“We only select people in the fund who demonstrate curiosity and open-mindedness, which lends itself well to diversity as a natural foundation for both our team at Tidal and the founders in our portfolio,” she said.
“In previous years, capital was plentiful and cheap. Now capital is limited and more expensive to acquire, but the founders will continue to use technology to innovate and solve problems. We want to be there for the next cycle, so our team is growing and we continue to invest in early stage companies. Our stance and focus remain unchanged, we will continue to overindex on product-driven inception teams with capital efficient growth models.”
Tidal aims to invest in 18-24 companies for Seed Fund 3, in addition to an existing portfolio of 22 startups.
Managing partner Grant McCarthy said the VC is prepared for any turbulence.
“We have absolute conviction in the team and believe that we will continue to integrate our collective experience of more than 100 years into our investment process, regardless of the ‘hype’ surrounding current market conditions,” he said.
“This will be the fourth ‘tech cycle’ for the Partner team at Tidal. We invested during the Dotcom era, the global financial crisis and the short downturn in 2012. This cycle will no doubt be different for several reasons, including Covid, the major reshuffle of talent, global supply chain problems and a rate of inflation in the US at a peak of forty years”.