FJ Labs, a venture capital firm that targets marketplaces, has secured commitments of $260 million from clients including family offices, institutional investors and founders of companies such as LinkedIn and PayPal, TechCrunch reports.
The commitments are spread across two funds: one focused on pre-seed investments, the other on “series B and beyond” opportunities, the news site adds.
FJ Labs was identified by PitchBook as the most active venture fund globally, and the fifth most active in Europe, in Q3 2022. It’s known for early stage investments in online marketplaces and other technology companies that leverage network effects.
Founding partner Fabrice Grinda was a co-founder of OLX, the horizontal marketplace that grew into the OLX Group, now owned by Naspers/Prosus.
FJ Labs has made investments in 900 companies around the world, including Airbnb, Uber, PostMates, AliBaba, Viagogo and SeatGeek. Grinda boasts that it has the “world’s largest marketplace portfolio,” according to TechCrunch.
The firm typically writes checks of $250,000 to $500,000 for a stake of 1% to 3% per company, Grinda said.
Though the company has historically made money on just half its deals, Grinda notes that the downside of any bet is fixed, while the upside can be enormous. “Say we put in $250,000 and it becomes $20 million, that’s totally fine,” said the founding partner.