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Flying Fish, the Seattle-based venture capital firm founded in 2016, is raising a new fund.
GeekWire spotted a new SEC filing on Friday revealing “Flying Fish Fund III.”
The firm declined to comment in response to an inquiry.
Flying Fish raised $70 million for its second fund in 2022, and raised $37 million for its first fund. It invests in early stage machine learning, AI, and robotics startups. The firm initially backed companies based in the Pacific Northwest but expanded its geographic reach after raising the second fund.
“We still have a major emphasis here in our own backyard, and are big believers in this ecosystem,” Heather Redman, managing partner at Flying Fish, said at a Technology Alliance event in Seattle in June.
The Flying Fish portfolio includes Symbl.ai, Vouched, Phaidra, Orbital Materials, TrojAI, Groundlight AI, Clarity, and other startups.
“We tend to invest in things that are very highly centered around AI and require a lot of AI expertise,” Redman said during a panel discussion in Bellevue last month.
Flying Fish invests in AI startups that build both platform technologies and vertical applications. It is also eyeing startups developing apps and services around reinforcement learning, according to Redman’s comments at the Technology Alliance event.
AI startups are gobbling a big chunk of funding these days, raising nearly a third of all dollars during the second quarter, according to CBInsights.
Venture capital firms, meanwhile, are raising far less money for their own funds compared to the 2021-22 boom times, driven in part by a lack of startup exits in recent years.
The fundraising environment for venture capital firms “has become increasingly competitive,” wrote Ginger Chambless, head of research for commercial banking at JP Morgan, in a recent PitchBook-NVCA report.
“LPs are becoming more selective, focusing on funds with a strong track record, clear differentiation, and robust value-add strategies,” Chambless wrote.
A number of other Seattle-area venture firms have raised new funds over the past three years, including Madrona, Fuse, PSL Ventures, Trilogy Equity Partners, Founders’ Co-op, Unlock Venture Partners, and Graham & Walker.
Flying Fish is led by Redman along with fellow managing partners Geoff Harris and Frank Chang.
The Washington state Department of Commerce recently announced that it is participating as a Flying Fish investor through its Washington Small Business Credit Initiative.
