Tenacity Venture Capital, an Atherton, CA-based newly formed early stage firm, launched its inaugural fund.
Founded by 25-year entrepreneur and investor Ben Narasin, the fund spins out with initial commitments from NEA as well as other leading investors and serial entrepreneurs. The vehicle will invest in transformative technology companies in the formation, pre-seed and seed stages.
Narasin was most recently a venture partner with NEA, where he served on the investment team and worked with portfolio companies including Transfix and Divvy Pay, which recently agreed to be acquired by Bill.com for approximately $2.5 billion. Prior to NEA, Narasin built a storied career as an entrepreneur and seed investor. He founded fashionmall.com and led the company to a successful IPO in 1999. His seed investments include Lending Club (NYSE: LC); Check (Intuit); Dropcam (Google); Kabbage (NYSE: AXP); Vungle (Blackstone) and Rippling.
Tenacity will invest in five to ten companies per year, in such sectors of interest as AI, fintech, hardware, logistics, marketplaces, mobile gaming, robotics and SaaS.
NEA Managing General Partner Scott Sandell has agreed to serve on the firm’s advisory board.
FinSMEs
16/06/2021