By Lynda Kiernan
Not to be confused with Microsoft’s venture fund M12, self-labeled “venture engine built by and for entrepreneurs”, M13 announced it has closed its Fund II oversubscribed at $175 million. One of the LPs for Fund II is Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, according to NOSH, however, no further investors were disclosed.
With an original funding target of $150 million, Fund II will focus on Seed, Series A, and certain Series B+ investments in emerging consumer technology companies active in the key sectors of food, health, housing, transportation, and personal finance.
Founded by the Reum brothers in 2016 in Los Angeles, California, and with offices in New York and San Francisco, M13 has evolved the typical venture capital role, to not only provide capital, but to also support entrepreneurs with operational expertise.
“As former founders and operators, all of us at M13 have the experience and empathy to support our founding teams throughout their entire journey,” said Carter Reum, co-founder and partner.
To-date, the firm has made over 80 direct investments (including in Thrive Market, Good Catch, and Courtney Reum was an angel investor in Daily Harvest) totaling more than $137 billion in enterprise value, and has executed 16 exits (including Blue Bottle, and Kevita). Building on this success, M13 states that Fund II will continue to act upon its expertise at the intersection of consumer behavior and emerging technology to drive change in consumer behavior in the coming years.
“M13 has already demonstrated success in deploying our investors’ capital into what are now household names, and we look forward to continuing our investment strategy with Fund II,” said Reum. “Fund II will allow M13 to take meaningful ownership stakes in compelling companies and grow them in future rounds.”
Although the pair have experience in investing in both food and beverage startups, Reum went on to tell NOSH that he and his brother view food as being better positioned to integrate tech, and therefore a more attractive investment proposition.
Historically M13 has made Seed investments ranging between $4 and $7 million, and when examining prospective food and beverage companies to back, will be looking for sales of $10 million.
However, beyond capital, M13 also offers strategic assistance, and is an ally in product development, scaling, and managing challenges “from concept to launch” through its in-house incubator Launchpad, a collaborative project between M13 and P&G Ventures launched earlier this year.
Mary Carmen (MC) Gasco-Buisson came onboard M13 as managing director, executive on Loan from P&G Ventures, to build a sustainable model for Launchpad, to coach and mentor the co-founders selected to participate in the program, and the M13 team.
Earlier in the year M13 welcomed Karl Alomar as managing partner, and along with MC, M13 has also welcomed Matt Hoffman, former VP with DigitalOcean, as partner and head of talent; Latif Peracha, former managing director with Virgin Group as general partner, and Gautam Gupta, co-founder and former CEO of NatureBox, as partner.
– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to the GAI News and Agtech Intel platforms. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.