Gavin Christensen, founder and common accomplice, speaks throughout a accomplice’s assembly at Kickstart Fund in Cottonwood Heights on March 13, 2023. Ryan Solar, Deseret Information
Rebecca Trusty, group and content material affiliate, and Brianna Bowles, director of operations, proper to left, work at Kickstart Fund in Cottonwood Heights on March 13, 2023. Ryan Solar, Deseret Information
Group members meet throughout a accomplice’s assembly at Kickstart Fund in Cottonwood Heights on March 13, 2023. Ryan Solar, Deseret Information
Utah’s Kickstart Seed Fund has closed a brand new $230 million fund, greater than double the worth of its final fund in 2020 and the most important so far for one of many state’s most well-established and energetic enterprise capital companies.
The oversubscribed fund pushes Kickstart’s property underneath administration to just about $500 million and will probably be a boon to startups within the Mountain West, the place new enterprise launches have ballooned within the final a number of years.
The Cottonwood Heights-based agency, which launched in 2008, additionally introduced plans to open a brand new workplace in Colorado, a state the place Kickstart has backed startups since its inception.
Whereas Kickstart will probably be backing startups all through the West with investments out of its new fund, founder and common accomplice Gavin Christensen mentioned corporations in its house state will proceed to be a spotlight.
“We anticipate investing about half of this fund in Utah,” Christensen mentioned. “We'll proceed to be probably the most energetic traders in Utah, as we've got been for the final 15 years.”
Rebecca Trusty, group and content material affiliate, and Brianna Bowles, director of operations, proper to left, work at Kickstart Fund in Cottonwood Heights on March 13, 2023.
Ryan Solar, Deseret Information
Christensen famous the financial impacts of COVID-19 led to some slowing within the enterprise realm and stress-tested corporations that weren’t properly positioned for the modifications in client and enterprise spending patterns. However, he mentioned Kickstart’s funding philosophy weathered the upheaval properly and the agency is properly positioned for shifting ahead on a continued development arc.
“We’ve tried to remain very grounded at Kickstart,” Christensen mentioned. “We’ve stayed targeted on excellence round servicing seed and pre-seed. We didn’t go chasing after SPACs, didn’t begin doing development stage rounds. The challenges are the identical and so are the issues we search for.
“It’s exhausting to construct nice companies. We’re seeking to reward gritty entrepreneurs with ardour and drive.”
Christensen mentioned the startup ecosystem is within the midst of a transformative wave proper now, pushed largely by rising synthetic intelligence instruments and firms searching for the perfect methods to place the brand new instruments to work.
“AI goes to dwarf all the things else,” Christensen mentioned. “We’re going to see quite a lot of growth of performance and worth that may be had by leveraging AI.
“It’s a extremely thrilling time that means. The promise we’ve been listening to for therefore lengthy by way of efficiencies, we’re lastly beginning to see these efficiencies.”
Whereas Utah’s tech ecosystem has seen continued enlargement and is now a direct or oblique supporter of 1 in 7 jobs within the state, Christensen mentioned he’s additionally involved about how the state’s total development is impacting the surroundings for enterprise startups.
“We actually care about what occurs in Utah,” Christensen mentioned. “Housing, air high quality, schooling, our water state of affairs and what’s occurring with the Nice Salt Lake. These items are all an enormous deal for us.
“We’re spending extra time than we ever have to verify these items get mounted. These points are larger constraints on development than discovering enterprises to spend money on. We’re dedicated to serving to clear up the macro issues to maintain them out of the way in which of the progress.”
In addition to increasing its bodily presence into Colorado with a brand new workplace that will probably be run by Kickstart common accomplice Dalton Wright, the agency additionally not too long ago employed former Degreed president Kat Kennedy as a brand new common accomplice.
When Kickstart introduced Kennedy becoming a member of the agency as a common accomplice final August, Christensen mentioned her expertise, ardour and grit had been an ideal match for the funding group.
“Kat has an unmatched ability set in relation to scaling corporations,” Christensen mentioned in a press assertion in regards to the hiring information. “Her gritty, entrepreneurial spirit and fervour for serving to different entrepreneurs was precisely what we've got been searching for.
“Kat’s addition permits us to scale at a time when so many enterprise companies are pulling again, not solely on investments however on constructing their groups. Kat really embodies all the things we worth right here, and we’re excited to see what the longer term holds together with her perspective on board.”
In a Deseret Information profile final fall, Kennedy shared her emotions about Kickstart being the proper match for the type of investor position she desires to fill.
“What I like about Kickstart is their technique round deploying capital particularly right here within the Mountain West and that in addition they deploy on the earliest, pre-seed and seed stage,” Kennedy mentioned. “I believed the empathy I might carry can be most respected on the early stage.”
Group members meet throughout a accomplice’s assembly at Kickstart Fund in Cottonwood Heights on March 13, 2023.
Ryan Solar, Deseret Information
Kickstart’s newest enterprise fund will gas enlargement to its present portfolio and quite a few success tales together with with manufacturers like Angel, Artemis, Aumni, Chatbooks, Cotopaxi, DSCO, Galileo (SoFi), Havenly, Lucid, Moises, Nav, Nomad, Nursa, Podium, Pura, Qwick, Self, Sondermind, Spiff and Taskeasy.
And it’s a buildout that will probably be pushed by much more than simply the checks Kickstart writes to the businesses it believes in.
“We take clever threat and we do it in a scientific and repeatable means,” Christensen mentioned. “Our corporations are backed by our complete staff and we're in it for the lengthy haul.
“One of the vital vital issues we’ve labored to do is normalize the entrepreneurial journey. That journey is one outlined as a lot by challenges and battle as it's in these moments while you’re on stage, being applauded by your friends. Each profitable founder has a narrative ... that goes to their braveness in overcoming range on their journey.”