SAN FRANCISCO — Venture capital firm A-Star secured $450 million on Tuesday for its third investment vehicle, successfully closing the largest fund in the company's corporate history to date. Founded initially in 2020, the enterprise plans to deploy this massive pool of capital over the next three years into early-stage technology startups, according to the formal company announcement released in San Francisco.
Kevin Hartz, the well-known co-founder of Eventbrite, established the burgeoning venture firm alongside Bennett Siegel, who previously worked as a prominent investor at Coatue Management. Both leaders created A-Star in 2020 to focus specifically on early seed-stage investments rather than competing directly in the saturated and expensive late-stage market sectors, the official company filing shows.
A-Star explicitly intends to back approximately 30 to 40 different early-stage startups from the newly established pool of money. Each individual investment ticket will strictly range from $3 million to $5 million, with the firm targeting substantial ownership stakes of at least 10 percent in every single portfolio company, per the detailed investment strategy outlined by management.
The firm has previously backed prominent consumer technology brands such as Airbnb, DoorDash, and Pinterest using capital from its earlier investment vehicles. Recent funding allocations sourced directly from the $450 million fund have targeted emerging enterprise software and digital infrastructure providers like Krea, Mercor, and Decagon, expanding the broader portfolio beyond traditional consumer applications, according to A-Star representatives.
A-Star will continue to deploy the $450 million across the technology sector over the next three years to identify category-defining startups at their exact inception. Kevin Hartz and Bennett Siegel will oversee the entire investment cycle as the firm maintains its strict commitment to conviction-led funding strategies, the company confirmed in a published statement.
