The 81 Collection, a Chicago, IL-based early-stage venture firm investing in founders building across low margin or capital intensive ‘hard industries’ like manufacturing, real estate, retail, and construction, announced its inaugural $41M Fund.
More than two-thirds of funding was raised from current and former company founders in the above industries. The fund also raised capital from four institutions around the Midwest, including DNS Capital, the Chicago-based investment office of Gigi Pritzker, Michael Pucker, and their immediate family.
The capital will accelerate The 81 Collection’s model, which applies decades of operating experience to identify and support high margin startups tapping automation, AI, and smart hardware to disrupt traditionally low margin industries.
Founded in 2021 by Vijen Patel, The 81 Collection participates in pre-seed and seed rounds with initial checks ranging from $500K to $1.5 million. The 81 Collection began investing from the fund in 2022 and has made eight investments to date, including:
- Bonside, which provides non-dilutive financing for large SMB
- Cambium Carbon, which fulfills large lumber orders with local lumber mills
- CarmaCare, a car care subscription service making car maintenance more affordable
- Dentologie, a modern dentistry with a digitally native focus
- Goose, an operating system for professional pet services
- Maestro, which allows artisans to co-create with others via asynchronous video
- Mezo, which automates home maintenance
- Parentaly, which helps women stay in the workforce through life changes
Patel was the co-founder and CEO of Pressbox, a Chicago-based fabric care company acquired by Procter & Gamble in 2018. Patel remained post-acquisition to lead the re-branded ‘Tide Cleaners’ before stepping down in 2020. The Founding Members include Grubhub Co-founder and Fixer Founder Mike Evans, Industrious Chief Commercial Officer Anna Levine, Protege CEO Jackson Jhin, Farmer’s Fridge CEO Luke Saunders, Tovala CEO David Rabie, CarmaCare CEO Jamie Ahern, ShipBob Co-founders Dhruv Saxena and Divey Gulati, Alex Kirshenbaum, and Cubii Co-founders Amav Dalmia and Shivani Jain.
FinSMEs
20/12/2022