July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Cendana Capital has raised an additional $28 million to invest in startup seed funds, bringing its total pool to $88 million.

Cendana Capital is a “next generation funds-of-funds” founded by Michael Kim. Before starting Cendana, Kim was an original partner at Rustic Canyon Partners and currently serves as a member of the limited pattern advisory boards for a slew of well-known firms, including Accerlator Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Founder Collective, Freestyle Capital, K9 Ventures, Lerer Ventures, and SoftTech VC. Kim, clearly, is an active figure within the venture capital community.

With Cendana, he exclusively invests in seed-stage or ‘micro-cap VC’ funds, which then put their money into young startups. Seed-stage investing is a hot button issue right now. The entrepreneurial community is all flutter with discussions of the legendary ‘Series A’ crunch. The cost of launching and operating an Internet startup is fairly low and as a result, the ecosystem is saturated with early-stage companies looking for capital. However, the number of seed-financed startups greatly outnumbers the amount of venture capital firms willing to invest in an institutional round, which means that unless these companies can quickly establish a revenue stream or get acquired (or raise an A round), they go under.

The main cause of this ‘crunch’ is the sheer number of seed-stage startups, which Cendana is helping to fuel. That said, a robust support system for early stage startups is a key driver of innovation and it is important to create an environment that promotes entrepreneurship. A current trend in the tech world right now is venture capital firms investing more in seed stage companies. Earlier this week, Maveron announced an initiative to fund and foster seed startups, and Sequoia recently confined existence of its Scout Seed Fund.

Cendana is a part of this movement. The initial $60 million was filed in June 2012 and today the fund closed at $88 million, as first reported by Pando Daily. Read the SEC filing. 

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Hollywood is all about staying on top of current trends, whether that involves wearing the latest designer fashion or forming a micro-VC fund.

The Creative Artists Agency is raising a $20 million venture capital fund, according to an SEC filing.

This is interesting for a number of reasons. One, smaller venture capital funds, or ‘micro-VCs,’ have gained momentum in the past few years. A Kauffman report issued in 2012 found that the best-performing venture capital funds are under $250 million, and many institutional investors want to get in early with promising startups who are wary of taking money from big firms. Secondly, many corporations are forming venture arms to capitalize on the innovation happening in the tech world. Investing in startups not only yields potential returns, but can also help businesses stay ahead of the curve.

Add these forces to the increasingly hip perspective that mainstream America is taking of Silicon Valley, Los Angeles’ emerging startup scene, and the rise of celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Alba in the tech world, and you understand why a Hollywood talent agency might want to dabble in venture capital.

Back in 2007, CAA attempted to raise a $150 to $200 million venture capital fund to invest in startups in the digital/entertainment sector. The company worked with well-known venture firm Draper Fisher Jurveston on the project, but it never came to fruition. Around the same time, talent agency William Morris partnered with Accel Partners and Venrock on a similar endeavor, to no avail.

Now, CAA is back at it again. Its clients include a Who’s Who list of Hollywood celebrities, including Will Smith, Meryl Streep, and Steven Spielberg. CAA also negotiates deals for major corporations like Coca-Cola, Dell, and Mattel. Ultimately, talent agencies and venture firms have the same goal- to find and sign the Next Big Thing.

We will see whether intuition for stardom translates into a intuition for startup success.

This story was first reported by Fortune.