Pre-seed firm Afore Capital has a fresh $185M fund and a new program to help founders discover ideas

Afore Capital, a firm that claims to be the largest dedicated pre-seed investor, was founded on the idea that the first check into a new startup should be larger than what most accelerators and early-stage investors were offering. When Afore raised its third $150 million fund in 2022, the firm wrote checks ranging from $1 million to $2 million, which general partners Anamitra Banerji and Gaurav Jain argued helped companies grow faster. The firm’s strategy worked. Today, its 200-company portfolio has a collective valuation of over $13.5 billion, and over the last year, Afore claims it has returned $47 million (1x its first fund) to its limited partners. Since the firm was founded in 2017, Afore has invested in startups like Modern Health, BenchSci, Neo Financial, New Lantern, and Hightouch, which closed an $80 million round at a $1.2 billion valuation this week. Despite Afore’s early success, Banerji and Jain say that not all young startups need as much capital as the firm has been of ... Read full article.