Thursday, October 11, 2018

Moonshots Capital Announced First Seed Stage Fund

Los Angeles-based Moonshots Capital, the venture capital investment firm led by Kelly Perdew and Craig Cummings, has raised its first official fund, a $20M seed stage venture fund. The firm--which has been making investments even before raising the official fund, announced today--has already made four investments out of the new fund. According to Moonshots Capital, the first investments are in companies in the corporate security, business travel, social-threat identification technology, and digital content creation areas, including an investment in New Knowledge (artificial intelligence software to detect propaganda campaigns in social media); Shep (business travel booking); Threatcare (cyber defense software); and Catalog (artificial intelligence for visual artists). Moonshots said the new fund will focus on seed stage deals, holding reserve capital for follow-on pro rata. Both Perdew and Cummings are graduates of West Point and also military veterans, and the firm is well known for looking at startups which are run or were founded by military veterans. Cummings said in the firm's formal announcement that it is looking for great leaders, and often, "the best ones are military-trained or trial-by-fire entrepreneurs who have the ability to motivate others to action, inspire trust, and plan heuristically."