Revolution Ventures on Tuesday closed on $150 million for the Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, a seed-stage venture capital fund with capital commitments from a who's who list of money managers and entrepreneurs, according to a blog post of Steve Case, chairman and CEO of Revolution, chairman of Case Foundation and who was a co-founder of AOL.
The fund will be led by "Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance, who recently left Silicon Valley where he was working for Mithril Capital Management, a venture capital firm started by Peter Thiel.
The Rise of the Rest fund will make initial investments of up to $1 million focusing on innovative companies located outside of Silicon Valley.
"We seek to partner with regional investors, so we won't lead rounds (indeed, we'll typically invest 10% to 20% of rounds)," Mr. Case wrote. "Our hope is that our involvement will bring momentum to help spur growth and further investment capital. We will also work to build a network of regional investors and entrepreneurs, to create the kind of syndicates and network density that makes Silicon Valley so successful."
Investors in the new fund include Jeff Bezos, chairman and CEO of Amazon.com; Sara Blakely, founder of intimate apparel company Spanx; Howard Schultz, executive chairman of Starbucks; Jim Breyer, founder and CEO of venture capital firm Breyer Capital; John Doerr, chairman of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Henry R. Kravis, co-founder, co-chairman and co-CEO of KKR & Co; Michael Milken, businessman, philanthropist and former head of convertibles at Drexel Burnham; and David Rubenstein, co-founder and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group.
Revolution has raised capital from institutional investors in the past including the $200 million Revolution Growth fund, an early stage venture capital fund that closed in 2013.
