Open from October 1 – December 31, 2021

WELCOME TO THE AV SEED FUND

This actively managed fund—overseen by an investing team of seven professionals—will seek to compile a diversified portfolio of ~80-100 pre-seed and seed deals. We believe that a very early-stage fund like this one that offers both high risk and high rewards fits within a well-diversified portfolio. This fund is power-law defined, but we think our large and focused team, network, value proposition to seed entrepreneurs, and strategy will maximize the chances of capturing difference-making investments. As with most of our funds, we’ll seek to diversify across sectors, regions, and investing syndicates to provide diversification breadth as well as depth. Finally, we’ll reserve a healthy ~25-30% of the fund for follow-on investments to invest more in those ventures breaking out from the pack.

ABOUT THE AV SEED FUND

~80-100 seed and pre-seed investments, diversified by sector, region, and lead investor
Invested over ~12-18 months, with a large reserve (~25-30%) for deployment in the later rounds of top investments
Co-investing with established seed investors
10-year term; One capital call: AV charges an amount equivalent to a 2% annual management fee for the fund’s 10-year term; fee discounts for commitments of $500k+. After capital contributions, including the management fee, allocable to an individual portfolio company investment are returned to investors, AV splits profits realized on that investment 80/20 (80% to investors and 20% to AV) - this calculation is done for each investment made by the Fund. Different funds have different profit-sharing structures; see AV's full Fees & Profit Sharing disclosure here
All deals vetted through our disciplined scoring and approval process
Minimum investment $25,000. Maximum investment $3,000,000. Come tax time, you receive a single K-1, and we deliver it by March so that you have plenty of time to file prior to the deadline
Membership in the Seed Venture Club, where you can review and opt-in to one-off Syndication investment opportunities in portfolio companies our funds are already investing in
Open to accredited investors; fund limited to 249 total and $10M max; no limits on qualified purchasers
Note: This fund is the fifth in a family of funds with similar investing strategies, including First Check Fund 1 & 2 and Basecamp 2019 & 2020

ABOUT ALUMNI VENTURES

AV is in an excellent position to identify, access, and create a portfolio of seed venture investments. With alumni connections to some of the country’s top universities—as well as established accelerators, incubators, and venture firms—we can draw on a powerful network. Besides leveraging that community to source new opportunities, we can also invest in follow-on rounds of some of the ~750 companies in our existing portfolio.

AV provides smart, simple venture portfolios to accredited investors at accessibly low minimums.

Two dozen diversified fund families, including 18 alumni funds, and over 6,500+ investors—with many from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford, etc.
Portfolios diversified across sector, stage, geography, and lead investor
Co-investing alongside established venture firms
#1 most active venture capital investors in the US (Pitchbook 2020 Global League Tables), and #6 in the world, having invested in ~750 companies to date
50+ full-time investing professionals, with additional back-office staff, located in six regional offices

THE TEAM

This is an actively managed fund, led by four experienced MPs. All have deep seed connections and communities (and were handpicked for these relationships) and are experienced seed investors with impressive portfolios.

Four MPs supported by full-time second chairs (full-time team of 7)
Located in startup hubs: SF, NYC, and Chicago
Each team is responsible for ~20-25 seed investments
Supported by AV, its 150+ investment professionals, and support staff
Complemented by a network of 6500+ AV investors and a community and subscriber ecosystem of ~550K
Opportunities sourced through team’s own networks and connections, supported by 18 AV Alumni Fund investing team, dedicated Focused Fund investing team, and Venture Clubs forwarding potential investments

SEED FUND 5 SAMPLE INVESTMENTS

Below is a sample of investments made into our previous seed fund (Basecamp 2020) :

Graphite (enterprise recruiting marketplace) is a platform that connects companies with independent consultants to get mission-critical work done faster, better, and with more flexibility.
Integry (enterprise) is an Integrations Platform (iPaaS), allowing any B2B SaaS company the ability to quickly roll out native integrations with hundreds of third-party software applications.
Nitricity (Agtech) has developed an environmentally friendly process to create fertilizer using only air, water, and renewable electricity.
OmniPanel (SaaS) is a SaaS analytics platform that surfaces key user insights from customer interactions, allowing business teams to improve their customer experience, quickly fixing pain points and identifying how customer friction impacts retention and profitability.
TripleBlind (data privacy) offers enterprise-scale cryptographically enforced privacy for data and algorithms as a service (DaaS), allowing companies to collaborate around their most private & sensitive assets without the risks present today.
Welcome (SaaS) is a human capital-focused SaaS platform intended to streamline the hiring process.
Yuhu (real estate) is an enterprise-focused property operations platform for multi-family, residential, and commercial property owners.
Undisclosed (Real estate SaaS) is an AI-driven SaaS application that commercial real estate professionals use to help them access private, portfolio data trapped in the numerous contracts and documents.
Undisclosed (AI & ML) is a low-code AI development tool for tech product developers.
Undisclosed (Fintech) is a developer of a digital payment system designed for patients to pay medical bills while improving their credit score.

For more on sample companies, see our presentation at the right.

AV’S SECRET SAUCE: AN UNSURPASSED NETWORK

We are uniquely positioned to identify and access a large pool of diversified and well-vetted seed deals. We have alumni connections to some of the country’s top universities—as well as established accelerators, incubators, and venture firms. We have an unusually large, connected, and experienced team getting up every day to access the very best pre-seed and seed opportunities. The team is supported by an AV back-office staff, allowing the team to focus on deals.

SEED VENTURE CLUB

Investors in this fund will receive an automatic membership to the AV Seed Venture Club. There are several benefits to this membership.

Opportunity to gain additional exposure to individual portfolio companies through single asset funds
Network and learn with others interested in pre-seed and seed investing
Additional investments have lower minimum requirements: $10k (vs. $25K outside the Club)
Updates on your fund and portfolio

AV SEED FUND PORTFOLIO THESIS

Attractive potential, difference-making opportunities. It’s likely most startups won’t survive, but those that succeed can offer attractive, even outsized, returns. But early-stage venture has historically generated higher average returns, 22% when compared with later stage returns of 12%. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Lower capital requirements. You can afford to make many investments at the seed stage since minimums and valuations are typically lower than in later rounds.
Growth in opportunities. Q1 2021 saw the highest number of angel and seed financings to date. In addition, early-stage pre-money valuations almost doubled year over year to $110M in 2021. Larger investors and the growing strength of startups is also increasing deal size to record levels.
Portfolio complement. A seed fund like this one offering high risks and rewards is a natural complement to a well-diversified fund.
Depth and breadth. The AV Seed Fund goes broad (across sectors, regions, and lead investors) and deep (~80-100 investments in your portfolio).

Shots on goal. Broadly indexing—investing in many deals—gives you a better chance of not missing the best-performing opportunities and losing out on the compounding effects of an early investment. And at the seed stage, valuations can be at their most attractive.

NEXT STEPS

If you wish to invest, you can commit below; minimum is $25K and maximum is $3M
Once you make a commitment, our Investor Relations team will walk you through the investing process. It takes 20 minutes max for most people
Note that you can also invest through an IRA (for new investors, this takes ~3-4 weeks to execute).
Space is limited to 249 spots for accredited investors; first come, first serve

For subscription documents and a description of our fees and performance, see documents at the right

AV Seed Fund 5

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