Matter Venture Partners raises $300M first fund to invest in ‘hard tech’
Wen Hsieh and Haomiao Huang, both Kleiner Perkins investors, left the firm in 2023 to start their own venture capital fund called Matter Venture Partners. The firm had backing from Kleiner and Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC.
Hsieh was a longtime KPer, having been there for 17 years; Huang had been there four years. With a passion for what they call “hard tech,” Hsieh invested in companies like microLED display technology company LuxVue, acquired by Apple; Amprius, which makes high-energy density lithium-ion batteries; drone maker DJI; and 3D printing company Desktop Metal, which went public via SPAC in 2020. Huang and Hsieh co-led investments in companies like the robotics company Dexterity and the CT scanning company Lumafield.
On Thursday, they announced the closing of a $300 million inaugural fund. Hsieh told TechCrunch it’s considered one of the largest “first funds” raised in 2023. The median venture fund raised that year was around $37 million, according to a PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report.
Matter Venture Partners was initially going for a $200 million fund, and Hsieh acknowledged that “it was a tough time for everybody” — startups and venture capitalists alike — to raise money in 2023.
“We had gone into it anticipating such difficulty and had very modest expectations,” Hsieh said. “But to our surprise, it went really well for us. We closed $300 million last year, in its entirety, and were significantly oversubscribed.”
Hsieh was a longtime KPer, having been there for 17 years; Huang had been there four years. With a passion for what they call “hard tech,” Hsieh invested in companies like microLED display technology company LuxVue, acquired by Apple; Amprius, which makes high-energy density lithium-ion batteries; drone maker DJI; and 3D printing company Desktop Metal, which went public via SPAC in 2020. Huang and Hsieh co-led investments in companies like the robotics company Dexterity and the CT scanning company Lumafield.
On Thursday, they announced the closing of a $300 million inaugural fund. Hsieh told TechCrunch it’s considered one of the largest “first funds” raised in 2023. The median venture fund raised that year was around $37 million, according to a PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report.
Matter Venture Partners was initially going for a $200 million fund, and Hsieh acknowledged that “it was a tough time for everybody” — startups and venture capitalists alike — to raise money in 2023.
“We had gone into it anticipating such difficulty and had very modest expectations,” Hsieh said. “But to our surprise, it went really well for us. We closed $300 million last year, in its entirety, and were significantly oversubscribed.”
Comments
Post a Comment