SNAK Venture Partners announced the close of its oversubscribed debut fund on Wednesday. The $50 million fund is anchored by the investment firm Pritzker Group, which was founded by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and his brother, Tony.
The firm’s founders, Sonia Nagar and Adam Koopersmith, previously worked at Pritzker Group, where they helped lead investments in companies like the auto marketplace Backlot Cars and TicketsNow, which exited to Ticketmaster. The duo decided to launch their own firm earlier this year to focus on investing in digital marketplaces.
Nagar stated that the timing felt right and there was support within their former firm to make the move. Their vision is grounded in the belief that there is still immense potential to digitize industries, particularly in sectors like supply chain and construction. They see a current moment of opportunity as even traditional holdout industries are becoming more comfortable adopting new technology, aided by advances in fintech architecture.
She pointed out that many of the biggest venture successes of the last decade, such as Uber, Instacart, and Airbnb, were consumer-focused marketplaces. Nagar believes there is significant white space to now focus on B2B marketplaces, specifically targeting categories that have not yet undergone digitization.
SNAK has already made six investments from the fund, including companies like BigRentz in equipment rental and Repackify in packaging logistics. The firm plans to make seed investments in at least 20 companies, with check sizes ranging from $1 million to $2 million each. Nagar said the goal is to deploy the entire fund within the next three to four years.
While many new funds are struggling to raise capital, Nagar credited their successful fundraising to their backgrounds and the support of Pritzker Group. Nagar previously helped launch Amazon Apparel and was head of mobile at RetailMeNot. Koopersmith spent twenty years at Pritzker Group and serves on the boards of various marketplace companies. Nagar acknowledged that raising the fund would have been very difficult in last year’s environment without Pritzker’s anchor commitment.
Other investors in the fund include the State of Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund and executives from marketplace companies like Favor Delivery and RetailMeNot.
The firm is location-agnostic, operating on the belief that the next generation of marketplaces may be found outside of traditional tech hubs like Silicon Valley and New York City. Nagar said they are focused on finding overlooked founders in places other funds might not be looking.
SNAK itself is based in Chicago, a choice some limited partners have questioned. Nagar views this as an advantage, stating that their central location allows them to reach founders across the country quickly and efficiently.