About
Our Values
Here’s what you can expect from our team at VITALIZE:
Commitment – We believe hard work, accountability, and continual improvement lead to high caliber output.
Diversity – A multitude of backgrounds and ideas ensures the best possible outcomes for all of our stakeholders.
Integrity – We commit to evaluating companies with fair and honest decision-making; we abide by ethical principles.
Service – We have a “customer comes first” mindset when working with founders and investors.
Transparency – We believe in honest, straightforward, and clear communication in everything we do.
Founders, apply for funding below:
If you're a founder looking to get funding from VITALIZE Angels, which invests in pre-seed companies, learn more here.
About VITALIZE Venture Capital
VITALIZE invests in WorkTech: people-first, data-driven, really big ideas that transform work today. We invest in B2B and B2B2C software companies incorporated in the US. We do not invest in hardware or DTC businesses.
VITALIZE was formed in 2018 as a $25M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a $35M fund II as well as a 450+ member angel investing community open to everyone. Our community approach allows us to add value through our active, diverse network of investors & advisors. VITALIZE has team members in Chicago, Madison, Los Angeles, and New York.
Follow VITALIZE on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Approach
We are people-first. From our investors to team members to the founders we fund, we are focused on building a community of amazing people.
Venture capital is a relationship business, and one of our core differentiators is how we leverage our extensive network to provide value to our portfolio companies. We make valuable connections for our companies, mostly to prospective customers and other VC firms, but we field all types of requests to help our portfolio companies flourish.
As founders ourselves, we have learned a lot from building this investment firm. We have implemented effective processes for deal flow, due diligence, and helping our companies post-investment, allowing us to move quickly and offer a high-quality product to founders and investors.
Investment Process
Our investment approach is informed by a decade of experience. Most importantly, we believe in a transparent process. When you speak with a member of our team, you will always know where things stand. If your company doesn’t fit our criteria, we will let you know why. For those companies that do fit our criteria, we will have one to two meetings, and then we’ll quickly jump into due diligence. Finally, our investment committee will vote on whether or not to move forward. This process can be done in as little as a few days and sometimes takes up to two months, depending on how a company’s round is coming together.
Our fund writes initial checks of $250K to $750K, and we reserve capital for follow-on funding that will be invested in companies that have strong growth rates and raise a subsequent round that is priced by an outside lead investor. Our angel community writes checks of $50K to $200K. Please see below for the criteria we look for in prospective portfolio companies.
Founders, apply for funding here.
What We Look For
We don’t invest in tools, apps, or features, as we are focused on the future of work in a bigger way. We define WorkTech as people-first, data-driven, category-defining businesses in future of work software.
The specific themes we track include next generation hiring models, new l&d/skilling platforms, infrastructure to support the growing freelance economy, and people engagement/retention/analytics solutions. Finally, we are also bullish on companies that have developed AI and data-driven horizontal or vertical platforms that truly revolutionize workflows for employers and employees.
We invest in B2B + B2B2C software deals incorporated in the US. The table below outlines additional criteria:
VITALIZE Angels | VITALIZE Fund | |
Company Stage | Completed product, strong customer intent and/or insights if pre-revenue | Completed product, early customer revenues (Typically $250K+ ARR) |
Initial Investment Round | Pre-Seed | Seed |
Round Size | $500K – $2M | $2M – $5M |
Our Check Size | $50K – $200K | $250K – $750K |
Post-Money Valuation | < $15M | < $25M |
Typical Round Structure | SAFE | Priced Round |
Geo / Corporate Status | US, Delaware c-corp | US, Delaware c-corp |
Age of Startup | < 2 yrs | < 3yrs |
Founder Equity Prior to Raise | 80%+ | 65%+ |
Return Potential | 30x+ CoC | 30x+ CoC |
Do you meet VITALIZE’s criteria and want to discuss funding opportunities?
Apply here.