Thomvest Ventures will launch a $250 million fund in 2024 and promote Umesh Padval and Nima Wedlake to managing directors.
Peter Thomson, whose family owns Thomson Reuters, founded the Bay Area venture finance business 25 years ago.
“Peter has always had a very strong interest in technology and what it would do in shaping society and the future,” Thomvest Ventures managing director Don Butler told Eltrys. He met Thomson in 1999 and joined the business in 2000.
Over the last several years, the venture capital business has been cyclical. Butler said Thomvest monitored it for decades and left generalist investing in 2010 to focus on a few important areas.
Butler remarked that when a cybersecurity expert spoke, you knew they understood the industry, our competitors, our consumers, and market needs. We said, ‘Okay, we want to be like them.’”
Today, Thomvest Ventures invests in financial and real estate tech, cybersecurity, cloud, and AI/data infrastructure.
The $250 million in capital pledges raises the firm’s assets under management to $750 million.
Butler expects the new fund to invest in 25–30 enterprises. Early-stage checks will be $5 million to $15 million, and subsequent checks will be $7 million to $25 million. Thomson claimed he had made some investments but hasn’t disclosed them.
“The last two quarters have yielded record numbers of new prospects for us,” Butler added. “Later, the best companies were able to achieve profitability and avoid market repricing. Internal investors recognized what they had and declared, ‘We will take care of this.’ We’re seeing later-stage firms that seek to accelerate expansion.
Thomvest raised its prior fund in 2017 and made 75 investments. Blend Labs, Carta, Cohere, Kabbage, LendingClub, SoFi, and Vungle are prominent.
As managing directors, Umesh Padval will manage cybersecurity, cloud, and AI/data infrastructure developments, while Nima Wedlake heads real estate technology efforts.
