Moderne Ventures Banks $230 Million for Fund III

Moderne Ventures has closed its latest fund, MV Core Fund III LP, with $230 million in capital commitments. The firm’s earlier fund closed in August 2021 with $200 million in capital.

Notable institutional limited partners in Fund III include GCM Grosvenor, the Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund, and several strategic partners, including AvalonBay, Essent, and LeadingRE. 

Moderne Ventures was founded in 2015 by Managing Partner Constance Freedman. Before founding Moderne Ventures, Ms. Freedman launched and managed Second Century Ventures in partnership with the National Association of Realtors, where she led early investments in companies like DocuSign, Updater, and August.

Today, the woman-owned firm is led by Ms. Freedman along with Partner Liza Benson. The firm has closed over 35 investments across three funds. The firm’s Core Funds focus on investing in software companies with annual recurring revenue (ARR) between $2 million and $20 million, and they target technology companies at the early revenue, scaling, or growth stages. Across its three funds, the firm has achieved top-tier returns, according to Cambridge Associates benchmarks.

Moderne’s early exits include Porch, now publicly traded on NASDAQ; Homesnap, sold to CoStar; and TaskEasy, acquired by WorkWave. Other notable investments made by the firm include ICON (robotic and AI systems), Caribou (an automobile refinancing marketplace), Proof (e-notarization, fraud detection, and identity verification services), Measurabl (an ESG data platform), Xeal (computing technology for smart devices), and Qloo (consumer preference prediction).

“Moderne’s unique platform de-risks venture, an inherently risky asset class, while producing top-tier returns,” said Ms. Freedman. “Moderne’s venture platform, immersion program, and massive corporate network consistently generate synergistic value for our portfolio companies and industry partners, which leads to top-tier returns for our investors. MV Core Fund III is an expansion of our existing strategy, where we apply decades of vertical specialization experience to curate customers for our companies and advance entire industries, producing outsized returns for our investors.”

“On behalf of our clients, we are thrilled to participate in Moderne’s Core Fund III, given the firm’s impeccable track record, robust value-add strategy, and strong team,” said Derek Jones, GCM Grosvenor’s Vice Chairman. “We value the opportunity to back a differentiated manager who brings customers to portfolio companies.”

Chicago-headquartered Moderne is a generalist venture capital and growth equity firm with a specific focus on real estate, finance, insurance, and sustainability. In addition to its Core Funds, Moderne will also raise its first Growth Fund this year, enabling the firm to double down on its highest-growth portfolio companies across funds and bring additional high-performing later-stage companies onto its platform.

With the closing of Fund III, Moderne now has total assets under management of more than $500 million.