Fika Ventures raises $76M to fund the growing LA tech ecosystem

The Los Angeles ecosystem is $76 million stronger today as Fika Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital firm, announces its sophomore investment fund.

Fika invests roughly half of its capital exclusively in startups headquartered in LA, with a particular fondness for B2B, enterprise and fintech companies. The firm was launched in 2017 by general partners Eva Ho and TX Zhuo, formerly of Susa Ventures and Karlin Ventures, respectively. The pair raised $41 million for the debut effort, opting to nearly double that number the second time around as a means to participate in more follow-on fundings.

News of Fika’s second effort comes as investment in LA tech continues to reach record highs. In total, more than $60 billion was invested in LA startups in 2018. So far this year, companies headquartered in the area have attracted roughly $25 billion in equity funding, according to data collected by PitchBook.

“It’s still really underserved from a capital standpoint,” Zhuo said of the LA region. “We feel over the next couple of years, we’ll start to see repeat entrepreneurs come out of these LA companies. The timing is ripe for a fund like ours to capitalize on the opportunity.”

Ho, a former general partner and co-founder of San Francisco seed fund Susa Ventures, told TechCrunch that LA is benefiting from the exodus of founders and investors from Silicon Valley: “A lot of the folks from up north have moved down here for better quality of life,” she explained.

“Silicon Valley has gotten a bad rap over the last couple of years so folks move down here, engineers come down here, founders come down,” Ho added. “I’ve watched the ecosystem grow over the last two decades.”

Fika Ventures focuses on the greater B2B ecosystem, but has also supported companies solving social issues within housing, education and healthcare. Ho cited an investment in WeeCare, a startup that helps people launch curriculum-based home daycares within their own homes, as an example.

Additional Fika portfolio companies include Asian food delivery business Chowbus, Elementary Robotics, a developer of robot assistants, and Chatdesk, a customer support messaging platform.