Moxxie Ventures Secures $95M in Third Fund, Spearheaded by Former Twitter Media Chief

For new venture capital firms on their first to third fundraising rounds, the market can pose significant challenges.

However, Katie Jacobs Stanton, the ex-Twitter media executive and founder of Moxxie Ventures since 2019, reported a smoother fundraising journey than anticipated for her third round.

On Tuesday, Moxxie Ventures revealed the successful closure of its third fundraising round, securing $95 million and thus exceeding its initial $85 million goal. The fund focuses on early-stage, pre-seed, and seed investments.

In conversations with potential investors, Stanton, alongside general partner Alex Roetter—a former Senior Vice President of Engineering at Twitter—indicated plans to defer capital deployment until 2025. To their benefit, their limited partners (LPs), including notable entities like Cendana Capital, Accolade Partners, the Nature Conservancy, Global Endowment Management outsourcing as CIO, and various academic institutions, were keen to support the venture. Michael Kim, the founder of Cendana, lauded Stanton’s expansive and deep network within the seed investment sector.

“The fundraising process was quicker than expected, something we’re quite pleased about, though one can never be too certain,” Stanton commented.

Despite the firm’s young age of five years without substantial exits, Stanton’s investment acumen is evident from her personal investment ventures pre-Moxxie with #Angels, an investment group she co-established with fellow female Twitter executives and alumni, successfully funding companies like Carta, Coinbase, and Airtable.

Success stories among Moxxie’s portfolio have been more gradual. Stanton highlighted notable investments in Certn, an identity verification service that recently raised an $80 million Series B, and Spellbook, an AI tool for legal contract drafting that attracted a $20 million Series A funding led by Innovia in January.

Derived from the word symbolizing bravery (with an added ‘X’ to reference the female chromosome), Moxxie has committed to backing underrepresented entrepreneurs since its initial $25 million fund. Currently, a third of the portfolio’s companies boast female leadership, while half are founded by individuals from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, says Stanton.

Though Moxxie identifies as an investor without a specific focus, it shows a preference for health tech, climate tech, SaaS, and AI applications, including recent ventures into robotics like Jacobi Robotics, working on AI-fueled motion planning technologies. With a median investment of $1.5 million, Moxxie’s strategy includes acquiring an approximate 10% stake in startups at the initial investment phase.

Stanton, with her tenure in the Obama administration during his first term, remains outspoken about political engagement, the impending 2024 Presidential race, and the venture capitalist community’s growing openness about their political leanings.

She endorses the transparency around political beliefs within the investment sphere, citing its utility for founders in selecting aligned backers who not only bring capital but also align on core values.