Los Angeles-based early-stage venture capital fund, MAGIC Fund, has announced the close of its second vehicle, MAGIC Fund II at $30 million. The fund will continue to concentrate on supporting early-stage startups globally.
MAGIC Fund’s Managing Partner Adegoke Olubusi said, “MAGIC’s vision is premised on founders investing in other founders and supporting them through the journey. We will keep scaling this up as much as we can, across different geographies and industries.”
Since debuting in 2017, the firm has backed more than 80 tech startups around the world. This includes startups such as Bank Novo, Payfazz, Frubana, Retool, CafeX, Py, KiwiBot, Muxy, Chronus Health, Mono, Oxygen, Akido, Homebase, Proof, Sunhouse, Chronus Health, Workclout, Fintual, Talla, and many more. The company focuses on startups all over the world concentrating on emerging markets.
The firm, which has dubbed itself as a “global founder collective,” expressed its continuing interest in looking into startups from around the globe but will also target startups in South and Southeast Asia. MAGIC has already made a number of investments in Asia. This includes a couple of recent and notable investments in Indonesian agency-based financial platform PAYFAZZ and Singapore- and Vietnam-based real estate technology company Homebase.
The firm’s second fund includes several new partners who will be managing different regions. For North America, Thomas Chen, Adeel Yang, Michael Lisovetsky, and Troy Osinoff will be managing its regional investments. Temi Marcella Awogboro will be handling investments focused on Africa. European investments will be handled by Dimeji Sofowora and Alison Cheung. Lastly, for Southeast Asian investments, PAYFAZZ’s Hendra Kwik and Oxy2’s Elvis Zhang will be taking the helm.
MAGIC Fund II is currently looking at global startups that are focused on building infrastructure while delivering a quality customer experience. The firm typically writes checks of $100,000 to $300,000 for early-stage startups and will continue to do so in this fund.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Managing Partner Adegoke Olubusi explains what the fund looks for in founders: “At pre-seed and seed, you don’t have enough data about a company to make an investment decision. Your bet is entirely on the founder and the founding team. What we know, having done this several times, is that things get harder. So when we’re looking at the founder, we’re evaluating whether or not the founder has the grit to stick through the toughest times which are going to come up.”
“Most of these founders don’t view us as their investors. They view us as fellow founders who are helping them along their journey. I think that also ties into them keeping it real with us and allows us to see them as people, and not just founders. That’s one of the things that have worked in our favor,” he added.
MAGIC is already actively looking for new investments and is accepting pitches on its website.
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