Artisanal Ventures Closes B2B Cloud Startup Fund at $62M

funding

Venture capital firm Artisanal Ventures, which works with high-growth business-to-business (B2B) cloud startups, on Thursday (Feb. 3) closed its oversubscribed inaugural fund, Artisanal Ventures I, LP, at $62 million, according to a company announcement.

Investors in the fund include more than 50 founders and senior executives from companies including Square, Atlassian, CrowdStrike, AppDynamics, Snowflake, Splunk, UiPath, MuleSoft and others.

“I’ve been investing in founders and helping them build great companies for decades. Raising a proper fund was the obvious next step,” Andy Price, founding general partner of Artisanal Ventures, said in the announcement.

“Recently, we recognized a huge shift in the VC market,” he said. “Founders can go one of two ways: a high value syndicate where investors dig in and work on their behalf in areas like recruiting and sales, or they go for the highest price, letting hedge funds bid up their companies to inflated valuations. We think the market is pivoting strongly in our direction and back to our partner firms, who are top-tier traditional VC players.”

Artisanal Ventures typically invests between $500,000 and $3.5 million in companies that are considered “high-growth opportunities,” then helps them to unlock their potential as leaders in their industries through relying on its network of partners and ability to help the founders make new connections.

“We are thinking big, but starting small,” said Co-founder and partner Andrew Van Nest. “While we are ambitious and believe our strategy could successfully deploy at least a billion dollars, we want to prove this model can outperform.”

Related: Connected Capital $176M Funding Focused on European B2B SaaS Startups

Earlier this week, Amsterdam-based B2B Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) investment firm Connected Capital closed its oversubscribed Fund II at 154 million euros ($176 million), bringing its total committed capital to more than 200 million euros ($228.5 million).

The company has closed nine platform investments in Europe since being founded in 2017.


An Ode to Malls as Gen Z Craves IRL Experiences

three teenagers at mall

“The currency of now” takes on a decidedly different form in this poem about the mall’s resurgence. It celebrates the brick-and-mortar comeback fueled by Gen Z’s desire for IRL (in real life) connections and the evolving role of physical space in a digitally-driven world. Join us, with a little help from AI, as we examine this retail revolution, where the “currency” of cool reigns supreme.

Ode to the Mall’s Second Act
A rhyme for the retail renaissance

The tinsel’s gone, the carols now hushed,
New Year’s returns — cashiers mildly crushed.
A sea of sweatpants, gift cards in hand,
The mall’s a vibe unplanned.

But fear not, dear shopper, the story’s not bleak —
The mall’s plotting comebacks, not just peak weak week.

Gen Z’s in the food court, TikTokking their fries,
While swiping through Depop for vintage thigh-highs.

“IRL’s better!” they might say, “No porch pirates, no wait—
Just tag me @Aritzia, I’ll meet you at eight!”
They crave neon selfies, not screens’ pixelated glow,
So malls built a skatepark where a Sears used to go.

Shopify’s merchants now hawk leather and lace
In pop-ups by Simon — no “online-only” space.
Leap powers the kiosks, the QR code deals,
As D2C brands test if foot traffic feels.

Where Macy’s once stood, now micro-lofts bloom:
“Live above Lululemon!” they might chirp. “Bath bombs in every room!”
A dentist, a daycare, a co-working hub —
The mall’s now a Swiss Army knife, scrubbed of ’80s dud.

Mall of America’s got waterslides looping its floors,
While American Dream’s got a ski slope indoors.
“Why choose between Zara and ziplines?” they could grin,
As Nordstrom becomes Saks Fifth within.

Phones glow like fireflies in this retail ballet:
Price checks on Google, then “U up?” on Tinder (hey).

They scan, they compare, they Instagram the ‘fit—
But still buy the jeans ’cause the vibe’s so legit.

So here’s to the mall — that phoenix of bricks!
No longer a relic of cassette tape tricks.
With Gen Z as hypebeast and Shopify’s might,
It’s part TikTok backdrop, part urbanist’s right.

The future’s bright, chaotic, a bit over-leased …
But hey — at least parking’s finally decreased.