Plexo Capital Closes on $42M Fund
Plexo Capital, a venture capital (VC) firm investing both in emerging VC funds and in early stage companies around the world, today announced the company has closed on a $42.5 million fund. Investors include Alphabet, the parent company of Google; Intel Capital; Cisco Investments; the Royal Bank of Canada; Kapor Capital; the Hampton University Endowment; and the Ford Foundation.
Leveraging the ability to invest directly in companies and in VCs, and to partner on deals with later stage venture funds who have invested in Plexo Capital, the Plexo Capital platform operates across the entire capital stack of the global venture ecosystem.
Plexo Capital was incubated inside GV (formerly known as Google Ventures), as part of GV's strategy to foster diversity in venture capital.
"The Plexo Capital strategy was born out of the desire for a larger consideration set of potential deals at GV," said Lo Toney, the Founding Managing Partner of Plexo Capital and a former GV partner. "Our thesis is that women and people of color inherently have differentiated networks and a different lens to evaluate deals. This is very important at the seed stage, as it leads to a deal flow that is differentiated, and enables us to pursue deals that require an intimate understanding of certain problems or market opportunities in the absence of an abundance of data. Women and people of color bring this to the table."
GV continues to source deals through the Plexo Capital VC network, including Blavity Inc., a Los Angeles-based media company created by and for black millennials.
Plexo Capital is at the nexus of the next generation of franchise seed stage venture funds as an investor; a dozen leading early stage companies as an investor; and a blue chip list of investors in Plexo Capital including leading technology companies, Fortune 100 corporations, foundations, endowments and family offices.
Plexo Capital also supports portfolio companies by cultivating a network of world class experts to drive growth in product, design, brand, UX, and customer acquisition.
"One of our aims at GV is to increase access to differentiated deal flow," said David Krane, GV CEO and Managing Partner. "In 2018, Lo and I worked together to build this strategy into an independent fund. We're proud of everything Lo and his team are building at Plexo Capital, and we're excited to see the impact of this work with a diverse set of investors and entrepreneurs."
"We believe that talent is equitably distributed, but opportunity is not. It is precisely because of this reality that we at the Ford Foundation are proud to be an early investor in this fund. Ensuring equitable access to capital is essential for building an inclusive and vibrant economy," said Roy Swan, Director of Mission Investments at the Ford Foundation.
About Plexo Capital
Plexo Capital is a full stack investment firm which invests as a Limited Partner in emerging early stage venture capital fund managers and as a VC in early stage venture backed companies. Based in San Francisco, CA, the firm was founded in 2017 by Lo Toney. Lo was an investing partner with GV (formerly Google Ventures) and incubated Plexo Capital inside GV before spinning out as an independent firm.
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