Venture capital firm Kickstart announces funding, Colorado expansion
Utah’s Kickstart Seed Fund has closed a new $230 million fund, more than double the value of its last fund in 2020 and the largest to date for one of the state’s most well-established and active venture capital firms.
The oversubscribed fund pushes Kickstart’s assets under management to nearly $500 million and will be a boon to startups in the Mountain West, where new business launches have ballooned in the last several years.
The firm, based in Cottonwood Heights, launched in 2008. It also announced plans for opening a new Colorado office. Colorado is a state that Kickstart has supported startups since its inception.
Kickstart will support startups in the West through investments from its new fund. However, Gavin Christensen, founder and general partner of Kickstart, said that companies in their home state will remain a priority.
“We anticipate investing about half of this fund in Utah,” Christensen said. “We will continue to be the most active investors in Utah, as we have been for the last 15 years.”
Right to left, Rebecca Trusty, community content associate and Brianna bowles, director operations, work for Kickstart Fund in Cottonwood Heights. They were hired on March 13, 2023.
Christensen noted the economic impacts of COVID-19 led to some slowing in the venture realm and stress-tested companies that weren’t well positioned for the changes in consumer and business spending patterns. But, he said Kickstart’s investment philosophy weathered the upheaval well and the firm is well positioned for moving forward on a continued growth arc.
“We’ve tried to stay very grounded at Kickstart,” Christensen said. “We’ve stayed focused on excellence around servicing seed and pre-seed. We didn’t go chasing after SPACs, didn’t start doing growth stage rounds. We face the same challenges, and the things that we seek are the same.
“It’s hard to build great businesses. We’re looking to reward gritty entrepreneurs with passion and drive.”
Christensen claimed that the startup industry is experiencing a major transformation right now. It’s being driven by new artificial intelligence tools and companies searching for the best way to apply them.
“AI is going to dwarf everything else,” Christensen said. “We’re going to see a lot of development of functionality and value that can be had by leveraging AI.
“It’s a really exciting time that way. The promise we’ve been hearing for so long in terms of efficiencies, we’re finally starting to see those efficiencies.”
While Utah’s tech ecosystem has seen continued expansion and is now a direct or indirect supporter of 1 in 7 jobs in the state, Christensen said he’s also concerned about how the state’s overall growth is impacting the environment for business startups.
“We really care about what happens in Utah,” Christensen said. “Housing, air quality, education, our water situation and what’s happening with the Great Salt Lake. These are all important issues for us.
“We’re spending more time than we ever have to make sure these things get fixed. These issues have a greater impact on growth than the ability to find enterprises to invest. We’re committed to helping solve the macro problems to keep them out of the way of the progress.”
Kickstart’s Colorado office will now be run by Dalton Wright, Kickstart’s general partner. Kat Kennedy, former President of Degreed, is also a new general partnership.
Kickstart’s announcement of Kennedy’s joining as a general partnership last August was a great moment for Christensen, who said Kennedy’s passion, determination, and grit made her a perfect choice for the group.
“Kat has an unmatched skill set when it comes to scaling companies,” Christensen said in a press statement about the hiring news. “Her gritty, entrepreneurial spirit and passion for helping other entrepreneurs was exactly what we have been looking for.
“Kat’s addition allows us to scale at a time when so many venture firms are pulling back, not only on investments but on building their teams. Kat truly embodies everything we value here, and we’re excited to see what the future holds with her perspective on board.”
Kennedy expressed her opinion about Kickstart as the right match for the role of investor she is looking to fill in a Deseret News profile last autumn.
“What I love about Kickstart is their strategy around deploying capital specifically here in the Mountain West and that they also deploy at the earliest, pre-seed and seed stage,” Kennedy said. “I believed the empathy I could bring would be most valuable at the early stage.”
Team members meet during a partner’s meeting at Kickstart Fund in Cottonwood Heights on March 13, 2023.
Kickstart’s latest venture fund will fuel expansion to its current portfolio and numerous success stories including with brands like Angel, Artemis, Aumni, Chatbooks, Cotopaxi, DSCO, Galileo (SoFi), Havenly, Lucid, Moises, Nav, Nomad, Nursa, Podium, Pura, Qwick, Self, Sondermind, Spiff and Taskeasy.
And it’s a buildout that will be driven by a lot more than just the checks Kickstart writes to the companies it believes in.
“We take intelligent risk and we do it in a systematic and repeatable way,” Christensen said. “Our companies are backed by our entire team and we are in it for the long haul.
“One of the most important things we’ve worked to do is normalize the entrepreneurial journey. That journey is one defined as much by challenges and struggle as it is in those moments when you’re on stage, being applauded by your peers. Every successful founder has a story … that goes to their courage in overcoming diversity on their journey.”