Paresh Dave reported in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times that, “The investment firm Susa Ventures won’t have any partners based in Los Angeles as it begins investing from a new $50-million fund.
“Susa unveiled its second fund — double the size of its first — Tuesday. In looking at the first batch of investments, Susa’s geographically spread apart team realized that most of the companies were in the San Francisco Bay Area, including finance start-ups Robin Hood and LendUp. They decided to consolidate in San Francisco, too.”
The L.A. Times article noted that, Susa, which has invested in Venice start-up Whisper, plans to continue working with Los Angeles companies — just on a fly-in basis.”
Yesterday’s article added that, “The firm’s first fund generated more than 35 investments from its arrival in 2013 to its exhaustion earlier this year. [General partner Seth Berman] pointed to Andela, which makes African software developers available to other companies, and analysis tool maker Periscope Data as among the fund’s success stories so far.
“With the second fund, he and his two colleagues plan to make nearly a dozen investments annually. It has already completed three undisclosed deals. With more money, the firm will be able to increase most individual investments to a maximum of about $750,000, up from $500,000.
“Susa also wants to add a pair of analysts, a recruiter who would help the start-ups and more events to bring together and spotlight people at the firms. For now, Susa conducts quarterly surveys to spread ideas for problems shared by multiple companies in its network.”
