Four months after closing its largest fund to date, Kapor Capital wants more. The company is under new leadership after co-founders Freada and Mitch Kapor stepped down from the outfit, which focuses on funding social impact ventures 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 raising capital from outside investors. Until last year, all of Kapor’s funds came directly from the founders; 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 londonbusinessblog.com that bringing in outside investors helps the company gain access; Kapor is now writing checks between $250,000 and $3 million with a primary focus on participating in pre-seed and seed rounds. Onovakpuri said the bigger fund would allow them to invest in more companies with bigger checks.
That said, with presumably a new chunk of capital to deploy, why would Kapor keep an eye on an opportunity fund? It’s a trend that has become the norm among early-stage venture capital firms looking to join later rounds of their star portfolio companies. Last year Khosla launched an opportunity fund and last week Cowboy also raised its first of its kind.
Kapor Capital did not immediately return a request for comment.