New Kapor Capital team raises opportunity fund TechCrunch

Four months after closing its largest fund to date, Kapor Capital is asking for more. The company is under new management after co-founders Freada and Mitch Kapor stepped down from the company, which focuses on funding social impact businesses and founders of color. Now led by Uriridiakoghene “Ulili” Onovakpuri and Brian Dixon, Kapor Capital hopes to raise a $50 million opportunity fund, according to an SEC filing.

The Opportunity Fund, if closed, would continue Kapor Capital’s new strategy of raising capital from outside investors. Until last year, all of Kapor’s funds came directly from founding partners; in September, however, the company closed a $126 million fund 3 backed by investors including Cambridge Associates, Align Impact, Ford Foundation, Bank of America, PayPal, and Twilio.

At the time, Dixon told TechCrunch that turning to outside investors helped the company gain access to them; Kapor is now doing checks between $250,000 and $3 million with a primary focus on participating in pre-seed and seed rounds. Onovakpuri said the larger fund would allow them to invest in more companies with bigger checks.

That said, with likely a fresh slice of capital to deploy, why would Kapor consider an opportunity fund? It’s a trend that’s become standard among early-stage venture capitalists who want to participate in later rounds of their flagship companies. Last year Khosla launched an opportunity fund and last week Cowboy also raised its first of its kind.

Kapor Capital did not immediately return a request for comment.