US-based venture capital firm Operator Collective has raised $45m from more than 100 limited partners including Bloomberg Beta, the venture capital affiliate of media group Bloomberg, Crunchbase News has reported.
University of Minnesota, Michigan State University, Kapor Capital, Perkins Fund, Gingerbread Capital and WK Kellogg Foundation were also among the LPs. The capital was raised for the firm’s first fund, which had a $30m target for its close.
Operator Collective will target business-to-business enterprises across a variety of sectors. Although stage-agnostic, the fund will seek products with demonstrable market fit and sources of potential revenue.
The firm hopes to encourage founders who share its diversity ethos without solely focusing on underrepresented groups. It said its LPs are comprised of 90% women and 40% people of colour.
Operator Collective’s current portfolio includes education-centred employee benefit scheme Guild Education, legal contracting software developer Ironclad and data privacy compliance platform DataGrail.
The fund is the brainchild of founder Mallun Yen, who aimed to form a consortium of ‘operators’ including business executives and founders.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.