Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC) is a

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

firm based in San Francisco, California, founded by Jeff Clavier. Considered one of the most active established seed funds in

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, it has invested in companies such as

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, and SendGrid.

History

The firm was founded in 2004 by angel investor Jeff Clavier when he transitioned his portfolio into a formal venture firm. Partners include Andy McLoughlin (formerly of Huddle), Susan Liu (formerly of Scale Venture Partners) and Tripp Jones (formerly of August Capital). As of 2022, the firm had invested in over 240 early stage start-ups. In 2017, the firm changed its name from SoftTech VC to Uncork Capital.

Investments

The firm primarily invests in SaaS (software as a service), marketplaces, consumer services and "frontier technology" ventures. With a focus on seed-stage funding, the firm generally aims to secure between 8-12% ownership of the companies it invests in. The firm's first fund raised less than $1 million, while the second fund raised $15 million in 2007. In 2012, Fund III oversubscribed at $55 million, and, in 2014, they closed their fourth fund at $85 million, bringing their capital under management to $155 million. In 2016, the firm raised $100 million for SoftTechVC V and $50 million for a breakout fund. In 2019, the firm raised $100M for Uncork VI and $100 for their second breakout find, Plus II. Notable investments have included:

, SendGrid,

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LiveRamp LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (commonly LiveRamp), is a San Francisco, California-based SaaS company that offers a data connectivity platform whose services include data onboarding, the transfer of offline data online for marketing purposes. The co ...

about.me about.me is a personal web hosting service co-founded by Ryan Freitas, Tony Conrad and Tim Young in October 2009. The site offers registered users a simple platform from which to link multiple online identities, relevant external sites, and pop ...

, August Home, Bitly,

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, Blekko,

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, Curse LLC,

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, Kongregate, Mint.com, and Next Big Sound.

References

External links

* Venture capital firms of the United States Private equity firms of the United States Companies based in Palo Alto, California Financial services companies established in 2004 {{US-private-equity-company-stub