Angel investor Boris Wertz has announced the launch of Version One Ventures, a new $15 million micro-venture capital fund focused on mobile and web technology across North America.
The fund builds on Wertz's successes with over 35 angel investments which include six exits – among them acquisitions by Google, Twitter, Salesforce and Groupon.
"My simple investment thesis: back passionate entrepreneurs who are trying to solve a big problem with a strong product vision," said Wertz in the announcement on Version One's blog.
Wertz said Version One evolved the same way as most startups.
"I bootstrapped my first angel investing projects with my own funds, found product-market fit and in the past two years have gotten significant traction with exits and follow-on rounds for portfolio companies. With the Internet rapidly moving into everybody's hands, today's entrepreneurs will be in the position to build the companies we all dreamt of in 1999, when I started my own startup JustBooks.
"The timing was therefore right to take my "angel investing project" to the next level and create a larger fund with a big vision: to become one of the most respected early stage funds in North America by being a trusted and helpful partner for entrepreneurs."
Wertz has a team of backers, led by Jeff Mallett, former president and COO of Yahoo, and including several American and Canadian Internet entrepreneurs.
Version One's typical investment will be $250,000 to $500,000 in seed and series A financing rounds in consumer Internet, e-commerce, SaaS and mobile companies.
To date Version One has already made five investments: Top Hat Monocle (interactive learning platform), Julep (multi-channel beauty brand), Jobber (business management software for contractors), Instacanv.as (Instagram artist marketplace) and Sunnytrail (social intelligence platform).
