CRV Scales Back: $750M Fund Targets Seed, Series A

Hustler Words – Venture capital firm CRV, a veteran in the industry with 55 years of experience, has announced the successful closing of its twentieth flagship fund, securing $750 million. This new fund, revealed on Friday, marks a strategic shift for the firm, focusing on early-stage ventures after returning capital to investors from a previous late-stage initiative.

The $750 million fund is a reduction in size compared to the $1 billion early-stage fund CRV launched in the fall of 2022. Alongside that fund, the firm also introduced a $500 million Select fund, designed to provide follow-on capital for later-stage rounds of companies already within its portfolio.

The decision to forgo a late-stage fund this time around aligns with a strategic recalibration. Last year, CRV made headlines when it returned $275 million from its $500 million Select fund to its limited partners, as reported by The New York Times. The firm explained that pursuing further late-stage investments in its existing portfolio could potentially dilute overall returns.

Despite the smaller fund size, CRV experienced strong demand from its limited partners. The firm reported that it raised the entire $750 million in just four weeks, with investor interest exceeding double that amount.

The new fund will be deployed to support seed and Series A startups, with a particular emphasis on companies operating in the consumer and developer tools sectors.

CRV boasts a strong track record, having led seed financing for DoorDash and Series A rounds for both Mercury and Vercel. Vercel, a cloud platform catering to web developers, was last valued at $3.25 billion.

Since its inception in 1970, CRV has invested in over 750 startups, with 80 of those companies eventually achieving public listing.

Recent investments by the firm include CodeRabbit, an AI-powered code review startup, and Outtake, a cybersecurity company leveraging artificial intelligence.

Marina Temkin, a venture capital and startups reporter at Hustler Words – , contributed to this report.