Obvious Ventures, the venture capital firm co-founded by Twitter’s Evan Williams, has submitted a regulatory filing to raise $400 million for its latest fund, Obvious Ventures V. The filing, made public with the SEC on Tuesday, indicates that this is an initial notice for the new fundraising effort. In 2022, the firm raised approximately $355 million for its previous fund, falling short of its $400 million target, according to PitchBook data.
A spokesperson for Obvious Ventures declined to provide any further comments regarding the fundraising process. Established in 2014, Obvious Ventures gained recognition for its early investment in Beyond Meat, an alternative meat startup, holding a 9% stake at the time of the company’s IPO in 2019. Since its debut, Beyond Meat has faced significant market challenges, with its valuation now dropping below $300 million from a peak of over $14 billion shortly after its IPO.
The broader venture capital market has encountered difficulties in recent years, especially as tech IPO activity nearly dried up in 2022 and remained subdued, with few notable deals each year. Recent reports indicate that exit values hit a five-quarter low in the third quarter of 2024, with only two exits—both acquisitions—surpassing the billion-dollar mark, according to an October report by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association.
Obvious Ventures aims to “support entrepreneurs building disruptive solutions to humanity’s biggest challenges” with a focus on planetary health, human health, and economic health. Its portfolio includes well-known investments such as the supplements company Olly, lab-grown diamond maker Diamond Foundry, and electric bus producer Proterra.
In its early fundraising efforts, Obvious Ventures had a playful approach to numbers. The firm’s first fund in 2015 raised $123,456,789, while its second fund two years later raised the numeric palindrome of $191,919,191. James Joaquin, co-founder of Obvious with Williams, noted that the symbolism behind these numbers reflected the first fund’s investment strategy and indicated future directions.
Joaquin, a managing director at the firm, previously served as CEO of Xoom, a payments service acquired by PayPal, and Ofoto, which was purchased by Kodak. While Williams remains a co-founder of Obvious Ventures, he is not a managing director. In a 2017 post on his Medium account, he revealed plans to sell up to 30% of his Twitter shares to fund various projects, including Obvious. Late last year, Williams launched Mozi, an application marketed as a “private social network for seeing your people more” in real life.
