Kli Capital Family Office Transitions to Institutional VC for $50 million Fund III

b27410bf6ab8c12c5ec19bfd445173cd

Kli Capital was launched by dot-com darling Ice.com founder, Shmuel Gniwish. Elias Davis joined Kli Capital in 2018, when the family office was looking to back a new fleet of founders. When Davis arrived its casual investment strategy was producing returns.

Kli’s first investment was in Hippos Insurance’s first round, but it exited in 2021 and has backed companies, such as Stor.ai and Nym Health. Davis joined them to institutionalize the family-centered operation to take it to the next level.

The firm has deployed two funds across 79 companies and has seen a 4.6x multiple on that capital; the two funds are still relatively new. The firm is now making the final transition towards becoming an institutional manager by raising outside capital. It is now holding a first close on its third fund, where it has raised 90 percent of its $50 million goal, half of which came from investors outside the family office.

Kli set out to raise four months ago when analysts predicted that it would be a tough time to go to market. However, good time is part of the firm’s DNA-the founder Gniwish sold and repurchased Ice.com before the financial crisis in 2008, and the dot-com bubble burst.

“Timing is everything in life,” said Davis. “A lot of the co-investors we were bringing onto deals in the past started to ask if we would ever consider taking their money.”

The new fund will continue the firms strategy of investing in early stage companies across four categories that tap into the firms roots including finance, e-commerce, health tech, and insurance.

Davis said that around 50 percent of the founders that the firm has backed have signed on to be limited partner’s in the fund. Other backers include Nick Molnar who is the founder and CEO of AfterPay.

“Candidly a lot of those people invested without really caring what our track record was but knew that we were a top-performing fund and loved the idea of us being hands-on,” Davis said.

The firm has hopes to hold a final close within the next few months and definitely by the end of the year.

Kli Capital transitions from family office to institutional VC for $50 million Fund III‘- TechCrunch

Share this post

More latest news