Fort Ross Ventures Announces First Closing of $200M Late-Stage Fund

Global VC firm also names latest partner to support increased investment activity

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Nov 17, 2021, 12:19 ET

MENLO PARK, Calif., TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fort Ross Ventures, an international venture-capital firm historically focused on startups in the U.S. and Israel, today announced the $100M first closing of its Late-Stage Fund. Originally announced in November 2020 with a total target of up to $200M, the Late-Stage Fund is focused on investing in the Series D+ rounds of industry-leading companies with the potential to conduct an IPO or strategic sales within 2-3 years. In addition to a strong footprint in the U.S. and Israel, Fort Ross Ventures is also expanding to other regions, adding Europe to its target geography.

To support the increased investment activity from the Late-Stage Fund, Fort Ross also named Ratan Singh, formerly a Principal, as a Partner in the firm. Singh brings a wealth of expertise in the consumer and enterprise technology spaces to his new role, spending more than a decade prior to joining Fort Ross honing his investment philosophies leading private and alternative investments for Cavallino Capital, CKC Partners and BigFoot Holdings, three U.S.-based international family offices with more than $2 billion in combined assets under management devoted to venture and growth stage segments.

"As an early Fort Ross team member, I have been fortunate to invest and work alongside amazing founders and companies, such as Mynd, Ridecell, Roofstock, Clearcover, Rescale, and Insurify," said Singh. "I am excited about Fort Ross expanding our investment thesis to include a late-stage fund, and becoming a multi-stage investment platform supporting all stages of growth for the start-up ecosystem. As a Partner, I am enthusiastic about investing in disruptive technologies that have scaled to be industry-leading solutions in their segment. There is a tremendous opportunity to invest in later-stage companies to deepen their technological and market moats as they stay private longer."

As part of the first close, Fort Ross Ventures' Late-Stage Fund has invested in Ladder Life, the digital life insurance company offering flexible term coverage in minutes within their recently announced $100M Series D. The fund's ongoing investment priorities include fintech, cloud technologies, AI/machine learning, business process automation services, edtech, foodtech and tech enabled businesses, with a strategic aim of backing companies that have raised at least $50M in equity capital and are valued at $500M or more.

"We're extremely pleased with the reception to the Late-Stage Fund, as there has been enough demand that we expect it will end up being upsized," said Fort Ross Ventures founder and Managing Partner Victor Orlovski. "It's long been our belief that our international connections to connect founders with the best tech talent and expertise in business development can be just as beneficial to more mature companies as they are for early-stage startups, and we see the fund's success as validation of our winning formula."

For more information, please visit www.fortross.vc.

About Fort Ross Ventures

Fort Ross Ventures brings together Silicon Valley venture expertise with an extensive network of relationships in the U.S., Israel, and Eastern Europe. The firm leverages its cultural and business development connections to accelerate success for portfolio companies, including Uber, Standard.ai, ClearCover, GridGain, Roofstock, Insurify, eToro, Tufin, Explorium, Blueshift, NetGuardians, Mobeewave and LendingHome, among others.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Fort Ross Ventures