Data-driven Seed-Stage VC Firm Ulu Ventures Grows its Fourth Fund to $208M
For more information contact:
Rusty Dornin, Director of Marketing and Communications, rusty@uluventures.com
Ulu Ventures, a top seed stage Silicon Valley firm, is the largest Latina-led fund in the US and focused on high-growth and market-leading information technology and internet companies. Ulu raised $208M for Fund IV, an increase of more than fifty percent over Fund III’s $138M. This latest fund also doubles Ulu’s assets under management to over $400M AUM.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250211584433/en/
Maria Salamanca, Clint Korver, Miriam Rivera, Steve Reale (Photo: Business Wire)
Ulu's institutional investors comprise a wide array of LPs. Twelve foundations, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, CalWellness Foundation, and Marguerite Casey Foundation, invested in Fund IV. A Southern California public pension is a repeat investor along with many other Ulu LPs. Fund-of-funds like GCM Grosvenor and Verdis Investments, as well as Black- and women-led firms such as Fairview Capital and Illumen Capital extend the investor pool. Family offices are well-represented, including Pivotal Ventures, Gingerbread Capital and Hunt Holdings. Two higher-education endowments, one from a Boston-based college participated. The investor base is enriched by corporate and financial institutions, notably Citi Impact Fund, MassMutual through its First Fund Initiative, venture firm Motley Fool Ventures and mission-based investors such as Mercy Investment Services.
“The caliber of institutional investors supporting Fund IV is exceptional. We are honored that they recognize Ulu’s disciplined data-driven investment thesis reduces cognitive bias while driving returns. We’ve been funding teams that bring together entrepreneurs with varied backgrounds, expertise, and life experiences for more than 15 years and they’ve proven to be highly successful,” said CEO, Co-founder, and Managing Director Miriam Rivera.
“We remain confident in Ulu Ventures ability to access top-tier deal flow and deliver strong returns for investors,” said Jessica Holsey, Managing Director, GCM Grosvenor, an investor in two of Ulu’s funds, including Fund IV.
Ulu has ten unicorns in its portfolio including: Guild Education, BetterUp, Figure, Provenance, ZUM, Homelight, Everlaw, and exited companies SoFi (traded on NASDAQ), Krux (sold to Salesforce), and Palantir. Palantir is traded on NASDAQ and joined the S&P 500 in October 2024.
“Ulu Ventures continues to go from strength to strength, as evidenced by the impressive growth of their fourth fund. Ulu has built an extraordinary ability to spot and support founders who are often overlooked yet demonstrate a proven track record of success,” said Erin Harkless Moore, Managing Director of Investment, Pivotal Ventures.
“I have never supported numeric goals or so-called quotas, except as a remedy to unlawful discrimination. Ulu is a beacon for the most talented entrepreneurial teams because we reduce bias by applying impartial methods of assessing risk and the same criteria to all people. Evidence-supported and disciplined decision-making methodologies help us identify teams that are inclusive of all races, ethnicities and genders,” said Miriam Rivera.
Ulu Ventures is led by Miriam Rivera, Clint Korver, Steve Reale and Maria Salamanca. With deep ties to the Stanford, Berkeley and Silicon Valley ecosystems, they bring fresh perspectives to venture capital. “In this era of rapid transformation within the venture capital ecosystem, Ulu’s investment approach emphasizes a commitment to consistently delivering exceptional results across a growing portfolio of companies boldly shaping the future," said JoAnn Price, Co-Founder, Fairview Capital.
Steve Reale and Maria Salamanca joined Ulu in Funds II and III respectively and were named General Partners in Fund III. They are committed to building Ulu into a legacy firm that will generate top tier returns over generations. “At Ulu, we believe that venture as an asset class is evolving. Our analytical approach helps us identify the best entrepreneurial teams and support companies in outlier industries before they are obvious. It’s an exciting time to be investing,” said Maria Salamanca.
About Ulu Ventures
Ulu Ventures is a top seed stage venture fund in Silicon Valley focused on high-growth and market-leading information technology and internet companies. Ulu generates financial returns using a disciplined, repeatable decision-making process that analyzes risk-reward trade-offs and also reduces cognitive bias. The firm has more than $400M AUM and ten unicorns in the portfolio.
The investment team builds strong relationships with founders using a transparent and collaborative market-mapping process, comprehensive onboarding, and targeted support, as well as Series A fundraising assistance to help Ulupreneurs take their companies to the next level.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250211584433/en/
