Jun 26, 2020 - Economy

Scoop: Alexis Ohanian leaves VC firm Initialized

Alexis Ohanian at the 2019 U.S. Open.

Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is moving on from Initialized, the venture capital firm he co-founded in 2012, Axios has learned.

What happened: Ohanian has become more interested in "pre-seed" investing, which is often little more than a business plan and a founding team, whereas Initialized focuses on traditional "seed-stage" investing.

Why now: Initialized, led by Garry Tan, is beginning to raise its fifth flagship fund, as its $225 million fourth fund was raised two years ago.

  • Don't be surprised to see Ohanian also raise a fund for his pre-seed efforts, although no word yet on how much he'll target.
  • Ohanian also plans to remain involved with existing Initialized portfolio companies but won't make any new Initialized investments.

Backstory: Ohanian and Tan co-founded Initialized, but in 2014 he pulled back in order to retake the reins at Reddit. He then returned full-time in 2018 to Initialized, where his deals have included Goat, Ro, and Patreon.

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