SNAK Venture Partners just closed an oversubscribed $50 million debut fund to chase what founders Sonia Nagar and Adam Koopersmith see as venture capital's next big winners - vertical B2B marketplaces in industries still running on spreadsheets and phone calls. Anchored by Pritzker Group, the Chicago-based firm is betting that the digitization wave that minted consumer unicorns like Uber and Airbnb is just getting started in enterprise sectors like construction, supply chain, and equipment rental.
SNAK Venture Partners just proved that emerging managers can still raise capital if they've got the right thesis and backing. The firm closed its oversubscribed $50 million debut fund Wednesday, anchored by Pritzker Group, the investment firm founded by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and his brother Tony.
Founders Sonia Nagar and Adam Koopersmith aren't typical first-time fund managers spinning out on a hunch. Both cut their teeth at Pritzker Group, where they led investments in companies like auto marketplace Backlot Cars and TicketsNow, which exited to Ticketmaster. That track record mattered when they decided to launch their own firm earlier this year focused exclusively on digital marketplaces.
"It felt like the timing was right and there was support within the firm to go do this," Nagar told TechCrunch. The support proved critical - she admits that without Pritzker's anchor commitment, raising this fund in last year's brutal fundraising environment would have been "quite hard."
The thesis is simple but compelling. Consumer marketplaces dominated venture returns over the past decade, with platforms like Uber, Instacart, and Airbnb delivering five of the top 10 venture outcomes. Now Nagar and Koopersmith see those same dynamics playing out in B2B sectors that have resisted digitization - think construction, supply chain, and industrial equipment.
