Acceleprise, a leading early-stage B2B SaaS venture capital firm, accelerator, and corporate innovation platform, announced the launch of a new seed fund, the close of a fourth fund for their flagship pre-seed program, and a new brand, Forum Ventures.
Their new Seed fund totals $13.2M and is backed by leading SaaS executives and founders like Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, Jen Gran, CEO of Appify and former CMO of Looker, Anthony Kennada, CMO of Hopin, Kristen Habacht, CSO at Shogun, Rowan Trollope, CEO of Five9, John Kim, CEO of Sendbird and many more.
Out of their seed fund, they will back B2B SaaS companies at the Seed stage, typically $1M to $4M round sizes, across a broad range of B2B sectors, including future of work, fintech, insurtech, industry specific SaaS, e-commerce enablement, B2B marketplaces, AI/ML, API-driven, logistics, creator economy, and more.
They have already made 16 investments out of this new seed fund, including Firstbase, which recently announced their Series A from Andreessen Horowitz. Other investments include VendorPM, Kiira Health, Sote and Bbot. Co-investors include Bessemer, First Round Capital, Craft Ventures, Backstage Capital, MaC Venture Capital and more.
“We’re big believers in the opportunity ahead for Software-as-a-Service businesses and we want to continue to invest in and support exceptional SaaS founders at more points along their journey,” said Michael Cardamone, Acceleprise CEO and Managing Partner. “Our new seed fund will invest in companies that have gone through our pre-seed program and in seed rounds of companies outside of our program.”
In addition, Acceleprise has launched their fourth fund for their flagship pre-seed program, closing at $17M, to double down on their robust GTM focused program, fractional co-founder support, founder platform, and large and growing community.
As a way to reflect their new funds, expanding offering and growing community, Acceleprise has rebranded to Forum Ventures: a place to connect, exchange new ideas, learn, grow and innovate.
“The name Acceleprise was inherently tied to our original offering – an accelerator – however, we’ve greatly evolved past this model,” explains Alexis Clarfield-Henry, Head of Marketing. “The level of support we provide – from funding to fundraising to customer introductions to our robust community – founders don’t get that with a traditional accelerator or VC firm. We needed a new name that would better encompass our entire offering.”
Acceleprise, now Forum Ventures, welcomed four new members to the team in the past year, including Jeff Becker, Managing Director for San Francisco, Alexis Clarfield-Henry, Head of Marketing, Steph Jones, Associate and Head of Diversity and Inclusion, and Rei Tran, Investment Associate.
About Forum Ventures
Forum Ventures is a pre-seed fund and program, seed fund, platform and community for early-stage B2B SaaS founders, with offices in San Francisco, New York City and Toronto. Backed by leading builders and operators of some of the world’s largest SaaS companies, we help founders go from zero to scale, delivering best in class funding, mentorship, and programming.
With over 200 portfolio companies, Forum founders have gone on to raise from Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, Uncork Capital, 8VC, Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, Canaan, Bowery Capital, Susa Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, SV Angel, True Ventures and hundreds more.
Learn more at https://www.forumvc.com
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