Dakota Marketplace tracked 830 venture capital funds raising a combined $80 billion in 2025, with institutional pension and endowment commitments totaling $10.4 billion across the asset class. Against a backdrop where the top 30 established VC funds continue to capture a disproportionate share of institutional capital, a cohort of first-time and sophomore managers founded by executives from the most recognized firms in venture has still managed to attract meaningful allocator backing. Every one of them did it the same way: they made the credibility gap disappear before the first LP meeting. (Powered by Dakota)
This analysis is powered by Dakota Marketplace, which tracks data across thousands of active private market strategies by fund type, geography, vintage year, and fundraising status, giving fund managers and allocators a live view of where capital is moving and who is raising it.
The Venture Capital Universe Right Now
New fund launches in venture capital have grown substantially over the past six years, driven by experienced investors leaving established platforms to build independent firms.
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Vintage Year
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New Strategies Launched
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2019
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825
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2020
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840
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2021
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228
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2022
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332
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2023
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741
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2024
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1,457
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2025
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1,773
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The 2021 and 2022 dip reflects fund close timing patterns in Dakota's data rather than a real contraction in activity, the recovery through 2023 to 2025 is significant. Dakota Marketplace tracked 1,773 new venture capital strategies with a 2025 vintage, more than double the 2023 count.
Why Emerging VC Managers Face the Hardest Fundraising Environment in Years
VC fundraising in 2025 ran on two tracks simultaneously. Established multi-stage platforms raised at scale. Emerging managers competed for a smaller, more selective pool. The dynamics pushing capital toward established names are structural: slower distributions from 2020 to 2022 vintage funds, LP over-allocation during the zero-rate era, and tightening re-up cycles that leave less room for new relationships. What this means in practice is that debut and sophomore VC fund managers who succeeded in 2024 and 2025 almost universally arrived with a named institutional anchor, a recognizable platform pedigree, or a prior fund LP base that institutional allocators already knew.
Venture Capital Emerging Managers to Watch in 2026
The following managers launched in 2024 or 2025, came from well-pedigreed larger firms, and have started to attract institutional backing. All are active in Dakota Marketplace.
Sunflower Capital:
Sunflower Capital was founded by Liu Jiang, a former Sequoia Capital partner, and closed its sophomore vehicle, Sunflower Capital Fund II, at $150 million, doubling the size of its predecessor raise with institutional LP backing from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, California State Teachers' Retirement System, and fund-of-funds managers Industry Ventures and Screendoor. The Sequoia pedigree combined with a diversified institutional LP base spanning endowments, health systems, pension funds, and multi-manager platforms represents one of the cleaner first-to-second fund progressions in the 2025 early-stage VC market.
Duration Ventures:
Duration Ventures was founded by Arif Janmohamed, a former partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Trevor Oelschig, a former managing director at General Catalyst, and is targeting $375 million for its debut fund focused on early-stage enterprise artificial intelligence companies. The dual pedigree from two of the most recognized institutional venture and growth equity platforms positions Duration as one of the most credentialed first-time vehicles in the enterprise AI investment cycle, at a moment when LP appetite for AI-oriented strategies is running ahead of manager supply.
Conviction Partners:
Conviction Partners closed its second fund with $230 million in capital commitments in January 2025, more than doubling its initial $101 million debut fund, following the addition of Mike Vernal, a former Sequoia Capital partner, as a General Partner. The firm invests early in AI-native companies with checks ranging from $1 million to $10 million, and the combination of Sequoia partner pedigree on the founding team with a clean first-to-second fund progression at more than double the prior fund size positions Conviction as one of the more credentialed sophomore vehicles in the current early-stage AI market.
Laude Ventures:
Laude Ventures was founded by Andy Konwinski and Pete Sonsini and closed its debut fund at $150 million in December 2024. Konwinski co-founded both Databricks and Perplexity, and Sonsini spent his career at NEA leading early investments in Databricks, Anyscale, and Perplexity. The fund's more than 50 limited partners are leading computer scientists, with one in three a unicorn founder, including research luminaries like Dave Patterson and Jeff Dean. A Databricks and Perplexity co-founder paired with a career NEA software investor on the founding team, and an LP base built entirely from the researchers who shaped the modern AI stack, gives Laude day-one credibility with technical founders that no generalist early-stage fund can replicate.
Touring Capital:
Touring Capital was founded by Nagraj Kashyap, Priya Saiprasad, and Samir Kumar, who collectively built careers at Qualcomm Ventures, Microsoft's M12, and SoftBank Vision Fund II. Kashyap previously founded and served as Global Head of M12, was a founding partner and Global Head of Qualcomm Ventures, and most recently served as Managing Partner at SoftBank Vision Fund. The firm closed its debut Fund I oversubscribed at $330 million in September 2025, backed by global institutional LPs, family offices, and more than 30 former founders, and has already produced five portfolio up-rounds and one exit. The SoftBank, Microsoft, and Qualcomm pedigree across the founding team combined with an oversubscribed first close and a confirmed exit within two years of launch gives Touring the institutional credibility at debut that most first-time managers take multiple fund cycles to build.
What Every Firm on This List Has in Common
Every manager on this watchlist arrived with named institutional backing before the broader fundraise opened. Sequoia pedigree and CalSTRS behind Sunflower. Sequoia partner pedigree and a doubled sophomore fund behind Conviction. Databricks and Perplexity co-founder pedigree and a research-rooted LP base behind Laude. SoftBank, Microsoft, and Qualcomm platform pedigree and an oversubscribed first close behind Touring. In a VC market where institutional capital flows overwhelmingly to established platforms, the emerging managers who attract attention first are those who resolved the blank-page credibility problem before the first LP sat down.
Dakota Marketplace
Dakota Marketplace gives fund managers a live view of the allocators most likely to back emerging managers, including the named intermediaries, commitment sizes, responsible contacts, and current portfolio vintages for every program in the database. To see what Dakota members already have access to, Book a demo today.
