Moonshots Capital Announces $20M Seed-Stage Venture Fund to Back Extraordinary Leaders in Entrepreneurship

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Moonshots Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in extraordinary leadership, today announced its inaugural fund totaling $20M. The fund was raised from a distinguished investor group from across the country including Dave McCormick, Co-CEO of Bridgewater Associates.

The new firm, led by managing partners Kelly Perdew and Craig Cummings with offices in Los Angeles, California and Austin, Texas, has already committed to four deals in 2018. These initial investments are focused on corporate security, business travel, social-threat identification technology, and digital content creation. In their experience and research, the partners have found that the defining quality across successful teams was strong leadership, which served as the impetus for the new fund.

"The military invests more money than any other organization in the world in training people to become great leaders, and we intend to leverage that training to our full advantage," said Kelly Perdew, co-founder and managing partner. "We believe that quality leadership is the key differentiator of successful companies. Trends and fads will come and go, but great leaders endure hardship, efficiently adapt, and never compromise when it comes to vision. Our new fund focuses on helping those leaders excel and making their ideas a reality."

To date, Moonshots Capital has invested in New Knowledge, a cyberdefense company that leverages artificial intelligence to detect propaganda campaigns and guard against social-media manipulation. The company, co-founded by Former State Department Counterterrorism Advisor Jonathon Morgan and Former Army and NSA analyst Ryan Fox, is credited with discovering evidence that Russia used Twitter to influence the US elections. The Company subsequently closed two additional rounds at considerable step-ups and the Series A was led by GGV Capital.

The firm has also invested in Shep, a business travel tool that helps companies optimize travel booking and expense management; Threatcare, a leader in proactive cyber defense with its Breach and Attack Simulations; and Catalog, a company working with artificial intelligence and independent visual artists to automate and scale custom visual content production.

The firm will focus on seed-stage deals and hold reserve capital for follow-on pro rata, where appropriate. Beyond capital, the team deploys their military and entrepreneurial experience and network to help portfolio companies grow.

"Great leaders are hard to come by. Often the best ones are military-trained or trial-by-fire entrepreneurs who have the ability to motivate others to action, inspire trust, and plan heuristically," said Craig Cummings, co-founder and managing partner. "We invest with conviction when those attributes are present."

Kelly Perdew has founded or held senior executive operating roles in 10 companies, five of which he sold, and three still operate profitably to include DuMont Project ? a 50-person consultative direct-to-consumer advertising agency. He has held multiple notable advisory/board roles and investments, including: LinkedIn (LNKD), Pandora (P), Harvest.ai (AMZN), and Slack. In 2005, Perdew won Season 2 of The Apprentice and later published his book, Take Command, which details how to successfully apply military leadership principles to business. After graduating West Point, Perdew served as a military intelligence officer in the US Army and is both Airborne and Ranger certified.

Craig Cummings has founded four companies, and most recently served as the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of RideScout, a ground transportation aggregation app acquired by Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) in September 2014. Craig's board or advisory roles have included Upskill (Co-founder), Harvest.ai (AMZN), and Millie (Co-founder). A West Point graduate and Truman Scholar, Cummings spent 17 years in the U.S. Army, primarily as an Intelligence Officer serving in support of the National Security Agency (NSA). He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan with the Joint Special Operations Command. In 2016, Inc. Magazine named him as one of the Top 20 Military Veteran Entrepreneurs in the US, and he is a member of the 2016 Class of Henry Crown Fellows of the Aspen Institute's Global Leadership Network.

Moonshots Capital was founded in 2017. The team has collectively founded and operated 14 companies and personally invested in over 65 ventures. The firm has offices in both Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles, California. The partners split their time between both cities and are not focused on any specific geographic market.

To learn more, please visit http://www.moonshotscapital.com/.

About Moonshots Capital

Moonshots Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in extraordinary leadership.

Great leaders are hard to come by. We believe the best ones are military-trained or trial-by-fire entrepreneurs who have the ability to motivate others to action, inspire trust, and plan heuristically. We invest with conviction when those attributes are present.

Moonshots Capital, with offices in Austin and Los Angeles, was founded by a team of veterans in 2017. We have collectively founded and operated 14 companies, and have personally invested in 65 ventures. Beyond capital, we deploy our military and entrepreneurial experience and network to help world-changing companies grow.

Work with us. Go to http://www.moonshotscapital.com/.

Moonshots Capital. Leadership Prevails.

About Kelly Perdew

Kelly Perdew has founded or held senior executive operating roles in 10 companies, five of which he sold, and three still operate profitably to include DuMont Project ? a 50-person consultative direct-to-consumer advertising agency. Notable advisory or board roles have included: LinkedIn (LNKD), Pandora (P), Ustream (IBM), RideScout (Daimler), Harvest.ai (AMZN), and Bitium (GOOG). His investments have included TrueCar (TRUE), ID.me, Scopely, CrossChx, Automatic (SiriusXM), Fair, Slack, Klout (Lithium), and Fitmob (ClassPass). In 2005, Perdew won Season 2 of The Apprentice and worked directly for President Donald Trump in New York on multiple projects. He later published his book, Take Command, which details how to successfully apply military leadership principles to business. After graduating West Point, Perdew served as a military intelligence officer in the US Army and is both Airborne and Ranger certified.

About Craig Cummings

Craig Cummings has founded four companies, and most recently served as the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of RideScout, a ground transportation aggregation app. RideScout was acquired by Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) in September 2014. Craig's board or advisory roles have included Upskill (Co-founder), Harvest.ai (AMZN), Millie (Co-founder), Prefix, and Edbacker (LivingTree). His investments have included Slack, Bitium (GOOG), CrossChx, ArtCraft Entertainment, Parking Panda (SpotHero), ID.me, and Kasita. A West Point graduate and Truman Scholar, Cummings spent 17 years in the U.S. Army, primarily as an Intelligence Officer serving in support of the National Security Agency (NSA). He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan with the Joint Special Operations Command. In 2016, Inc. Magazine named him as one of the Top 20 Military Veteran Entrepreneurs in the US, and he was recently selected as is a member of the 2016 Class of Henry Crown Fellows of the Aspen Institute's Global Leadership Network.

SOURCE Moonshots Capital