Fika Ventures, a seed investor in startups, has secured $40 million for its first fund. According to a report, Fika is aiming to invest in enterprise companies that are in the seed stage. While Los Angeles’ tech scene, where Fika is based, is focused on eCommerce, digital media and ad tech, enterprise tech is just starting to flourish in the area.
While L.A. churns out a lot of engineering graduates, many stayed away from startups until the big tech IPOs started happening.
“Now, the tech sections of job fairs are oversubscribed,” TX Zhou, general partner and cofounder of Karlin Ventures, said. “It used to be that data was only in the hands of the C-suite, but now, it’s available to everyone in the organization, from the sales force to the people handling customer success.”
The other general partners of the fund include Eva Ho, who previously cofounded Susa Ventures. Its limited partners include Cross Creek Advisors and Knollwood Investment Advisory, as well as 15 founders Ho and Zhou backed in prior funds.
Some of the L.A. enterprise startups that are making a name for themselves include Comparably, a business software startup; DataScience, a data science company; and Renew.com, a benefits platform for senior citizens.