Initialized Capital

Initialized Capital is a venture capital firm headquartered in San Francisco, California that was founded in 2012 by Garry Tan, Alexis Ohanian, and Harjeet Taggar. The firm specializes in investing in high-potential software start-ups. The firm believes every industry will be remade by software engineers with the purpose of making goods and services better, cheaper, and faster. It invests at the seed stage, has funded hundreds of companies in aggregate now worth more than $40 billion in market value, and has raised more than $446 million in funding (as of July 23, 2019).

The firm invests in companies that have products which are significantly better than products on the current market and can prove with specific data points that they have already created successful products. Initialized capital also seeks start-ups with clear plans for the first 18-24 months after receiving their investments. Upon accepting a company into its portfolio, Initialized Capital states that it aids start-ups in areas such as technical hiring, user acquisition, media, press launches, and product design.

Initialized Capital utilizes customer relationship management software that was built by co-founder Garry Tan to gain insights into the potential of a start-up. Those companies that could be backed by the firm are then logged and voted on by Initialized Capital's nine investors. The vote is done digitally and blindly in an attempt to avoid bias.

The firm is significantly progressive with inclusion and diversity within the company, with female investors accounting for 40% of the team (the industry average is 10%). Furthermore, one of the co-founders is vocal about companies in the United States being mandated to offer Paid Family Leave and encourages companies in Initialized Capital's portfolio to offer that benefit.

Initialized Capital has made a total of 116 investments, 35 lead investments, and had 6 exits (Cruise, PlanGrid, eero, Kimono Labs, Framed Data, and Mast data.

The following table contains information related to investment funds raised by Initialized Capital: