foundry group, an 18-year-old venture firm with approximately $3.5 billion in assets under management, has quietly decided to shut down and not raise any more funds. The move was unexpected considering the company announced a $500 million fund last year.
Boulder, Colorado-based Foundry first announced on January 19 that its current fund would be its last. The venture firm has been investing since 2007 and announced a $500 million fund, according to Crunchbase. Foundry 2022 — 8th time — May 2023.
Over the years, Foundry hasCo-founder and partner Seth Levine said the firm has invested in more than 200 companies and nearly 50 venture companies. He helped Fitbit, Zynga, and AvidXchange, among others.
When TechCrunch reached out to Levine, he declined to comment on the company's decision to close, instead pointing to a blog he wrote. However, he acknowledged that an unspecified number of people have left the company, but did not say whether they were temporary layoffs or voluntary layoffs.
in one blogHe acknowledged that the company's decision to completely close was unusual.
He writes: “VC firms rarely make decisions like this, but this is exactly what we planned to do when we founded Foundry in 2006. “We had intentionally decided not to build a company that would be passed down through generations, a company that we intended to outlast the tenure of the founding partners.'' Instead, we intended to focus on our investment work and re-evaluate potential new funds depending on the cadence of fundraising…There have been several moments over the past decade where I thought the money we were raising might be our last. After much reflection and discussion each time, we decided to raise new funds. But this time it's different. Foundry 2022 will be our last fund. ”
what's next
The foundry still has 33% to 40% of its investment capital remaining, Levine said. denver business journal. Levine specifically stated this on his blog: The company plans to “continue to lead Series A and B financings” from the fund.
This move raises questions for the companies in which it invests. Foundries say they will continue to invest from their latest funds, but accepting capital from companies that are winding down is a risk for founders and could make it more difficult to secure follow-on funding.
On the other hand, Mr. Levine argued that: denver business journal He said he expects all funds to be deployed by It is expected to be completed around 2026, and the company says it will “continue to cooperate with the companies in which it invests.”
in his personal blogLevine writes:We raised our last Foundry fund at a fortuitous time when the market was cooling down (a great time to invest). Additionally, he is looking forward to new investments for about two years. Needless to say, I worked on portfolios for over 10 years after that. ”
The investor told the Denver Business Journal that it “will work with Foundry until the work is fully completed,” adding that co-founder Brad Feld and partner Chris Moody have “similar plans in place.” “I have,” he added. He could not say what the other partners “will do in the next few years.”
her own blog post Foundry partner Jaclyn Hester says she isAs we roll out the remainder of our 2022 fund over the next few years, we are focused on supporting our portfolio and leading new early-stage rounds. ”
Foundry isn't the only startup to unexpectedly shut down recently. In December, Boston-based OpenView suddenly announced that it would stop investing in new companies. Less than a year later Raised $570 million Toward the seventh fund.