Act One Ventures Raises $73M for 3rd Seed Stage Fund

Act One Ventures, a Los Angeles-based early-stage venture capital firm, has raised $73 million for its third fund, more than tripling the $23 million raised for its second fund and bringing its total assets under management to $148 million.

Consistent with its predecessor funds, Fund III will invest in business software companies at the Seed stage, specifically those in vertical SaaS, fintech, compliance, and ecommerce infrastructure. The firm has led four of the five deals made from the new fund so far, with initial checks ranging from $1 million to $2 million.

Act One’s assets are spread across three funds and more than 10 special purpose vehicles (SPVs), but it plans to reserve significant capital in Fund III for follow-on financing of portfolio companies.

The firm is led by general partners Alejandro Guerrero and Michael Silton. The pair began working together in 2013 at the UCLA Venture Fund, and both were software company founders prior to that. They have invested in 47 companies since inception in 2016.

The firm said it was seeing “significant contraction” in the VC industry, as firms shut down or are unable to raise new funds after years of skyrocketing valuations and mega-funding rounds across all stages.