Mark Ghermezian, co-founder and former CEO of Braze, announces the launch of his venture capital firm focused on investing in the next generation of cloud disrupters.
NEW YORK, May 18, 2023 — Today, m]x[v Capital (“m]x[v”), an early-stage venture capital firm announced the close of its over-subscribed debut fund at $52 million in capital commitments. The fund invests in early-stage (pre-seed, seed) B2B enterprise SaaS companies that are founded by dedicated, tenacious leaders who are paving the way for the next generation of cloud disrupters. m]x[v is supported by a strong roster of former founders, limited partners, including Bain Capital Ventures, Cendana Capital, Pritzker Group, K5 Global, Social Leverage, and notable General Partners of top-tier funds and family offices.
Founded by Mark Ghermezian, an angel investor and co-founder/former CEO of Braze (BRZE) (a lifecycle marketing platform that IPO’d in November 2021), Ghermezian is focused on bringing a founder and operator perspective to the cap table. Having navigated the many hurdles of launching, scaling, and growing a company, he is passionate about helping founders navigate the early days of starting a business by offering his experience and expertise to help their companies scale. As an angel investor, Ghermezian was an early investor in companies such as Nutanix (IPO), Lattice, Thoughtspot, Outreach, Rubrik, Wag (IPO) and Riskified (IPO), along with 50 other investments, largely focused on SaaS.
m]x[v has built a strong community of Limited Partners and “friends of the fund,” many of whom were former founders that led companies from ideation to IPO. Ghermezian’s contribution to the startup community landed him a place in Signature Block’s 2022 Emerging 50 Manager list, a select group of the venture industry’s newest fund managers that provide real value to their investors and the founders they have backed.
“I love building companies and bringing people together to solve massive problems. I did this at Braze and throughout my career as an angel investor. Launching m]x[v enables me to dive in and support each of my portfolio companies and the founders. It’s the early days when founders need the most support to unlock product market fit, hire the right people, develop a pricing strategy, establish a go to market plan, and more. I went through ALL of this at Braze. I feel like a co-founder with each of our portfolio companies, and could not be more excited to officially launch m]x[v,” said Ghermezian. “We want to be the best partner to our founders, and be the fund all SaaS founders think of when they are raising their pre-seed or seed rounds.”
m]x[v takes an active, hands-on founder and operator approach, working closely with its portfolio companies as a strategic partner in their growth and evolution. The m]x[v team offers a diversified set of resources outside of just capital – mentorship, support at each company inflection point, and access to an extensive network developed during Ghermezian’s 15+ years in the industry.
“m]x[v has been instrumental in everything an early-stage startup needs,” commented Farrukh Mahboob, Founder & CEO of m]x[v portfolio company, PackageX. “Mark and the m]x[v team have provided incredible support, serving as our most valuable resource on GTM strategy, customer introductions, and growth plans which helped us close our follow-on round.”
To date, the fund has made 17 investments. The team has been writing checks from $500K to $1.5M, targeting 10% ownership in companies that provide real value for the enterprise. Out of the 17 investments, Ghermezian has incubated two companies within m]x[v, Gynger (a fintech financing B2B SaaS contracts for SMBs) and Tildei (a conversational first lifecycle marketing platform) where he had strong conviction in the market demand for the product offerings.
m]x[v is focused on investing in industry disruptors, and their portfolio includes high-growth investments with strong founders such as DevRev (the world’s first Dev CRM platform founded by the former founders of Nutanix (NTNX) that IPO’d in September 2016), PackageX (the first cloud platform driving the future of first-to-last yard logistics), Novu (an open-source unified API making it simple to send notifications through multiple channels – ranked as one of Github’s 2022 most used contributions), and Mailmodo (an email marketing solution enabling companies to create and send app-like interactive AMP emails).
m]x[v has also completed several SPVs, including leading Apploi’s Series B round (an all-in-one platform built to help you attract, hire, and manage top healthcare talent) and participating in Postscript’s Series C round (an SMS marketing platform empowering brands to better communicate with their end customers). Both are innovative SaaS companies in their respective industries.
“As the founder and former CEO of Braze, Mark has tremendous experience as an operator that can grow and run a successful business. He has a unique lens as a SaaS founder-turned-investor which allows him to unearth exceptional investment opportunities,” said Michael Kim, Founder of Cendana Capital (LP).
The m]x[v team has grown to six professionals and operates out of its office in Chelsea, New York, which it shares with its two incubated companies.
“We have built a fantastic community of founders and investors, and we are just getting started,” highlighted Ghermezian. “We focus every day on helping our founders build their vision, product, go-to-market strategy, and teams. To us, success means our portfolio companies have the tools and knowledge to accelerate their businesses and get to the next stage. We are grateful to have the support from such high-quality investors who share our vision.”
ABOUT m]x[v CAPITAL
m]x[v Capital is an early-stage debut venture fund focused on funding and founding the future of cloud. The fund is dedicated to supporting tenacious founders who are paving the way for the next generation of B2B enterprise SaaS. The leadership team is led by experienced entrepreneurs and operators who have a proven track record of building successful companies. The team leans in heavily with its portfolio companies to ensure they are providing true support and insights as our founders embark on the early days of building a business.
Contact
m]x[v Capital
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SOURCE m]x[v Capital
