London-based VC Talis Capital has closed its third and largest early-stage fund at $175 million.
The backer of Bondaval, Onfido, Clausematch and iwoca – which recently invested in Laced – is focused on helping founders build disruptive, category-defining and enduring businesses.
Led by equal partners Matus Maar, Thomas Williams and Kirill Tashilov, Talis was established on the fundamental belief that venture capital is a service business. A high-conviction, thesis-driven firm, Talis partners with just a handful of founders each year, committing substantial time in supporting every aspect of company building.
The new funds have allowed Talis to partner with three founding teams, including London-based credit security platform Bondaval and San Francisco-based carbon-negative textile company, Rubi Laboratories.
“The tech industry is undergoing a moment of transformation, yet history’s proven well supported visionaries and entrepreneurs flourish in such disruptive times as discontinuity drives opportunity,” said managing partner Maar.
“Talis’ latest fund – plus our absolute dedication to building deep relationships with those we invest in from the earliest stages – marks an important moment in finding the next generation of companies who’ll be category-definers of the future.”
Analyst Tashilov, made general partner at Talis for the new fund, said: “We invest when we see the outlines of sustainable competitive advantage and potential for path dependence. As a result, we think more like biologists than physicists – we think of economic webs and complex adaptive systems more than we do of simple value chains.
“It enables us to identify the potential dominant teams and companies early in their journeys and help them build enduring businesses.”
The investment team also includes Cecilia Manduca, recently promoted to principal, Andre Libeaux as associate and Ayman Fadil as analyst.