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.
"Most of those wins were in consumer, which tends to be faster-moving than large enterprises," Nagar explained to TechCrunch. "We think there's a ton of white space to double down and focus on B2B marketplaces." The firm is specifically hunting for categories that haven't yet made the digital leap, betting that even holdout industries are finally ready to adopt new technology as fintech infrastructure matures.
SNAK has already deployed capital into six companies, including BigRentals in equipment rental and Repackify in packaging logistics. The firm plans to write seed checks of $1 million to $2 million into at least 20 companies total, deploying the full $50 million over the next three to four years.
The LP base reflects both traditional institutional support and strategic marketplace expertise. Beyond Pritzker Group's anchor, backers include the State of Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund and executives from marketplace companies like Favor Delivery and RetailMeNot. That operational DNA matters when evaluating early-stage marketplace businesses, where network effects and unit economics can make or break a company.
Nagar's own background adds credibility to the strategy. She helped launch Amazon apparel back in 2009 and later served as head of mobile at RetailMeNot. Koopersmith spent 20 years at Pritzker Group and currently sits on boards of various marketplace companies. In an environment where LP capital remains concentrated at the top, those resumes helped SNAK break through.
But the firm isn't just betting on pedigree - geography plays a role too. SNAK operates from Chicago, a location some LPs initially questioned. Nagar sees it as an advantage. "We're finding these overlooked founders in places where maybe other funds aren't looking," she said. The firm maintains a location-agnostic investment strategy, recognizing that the next generation of vertical marketplaces won't all emerge from Silicon Valley or New York.
"People perceive that as a disadvantage; we view it as an advantage," Nagar told TechCrunch. "We can get to everybody very fast." It's a positioning play - close enough to coastal deal flow but differentiated enough to access founders who might get overlooked by Sand Hill Road.
The fundraise comes at an interesting moment for emerging managers. While many new funds struggled to raise capital over the past 18 months, specialized strategies with clear theses and strong anchor commitments continue to attract LP interest. SNAK's oversubscription suggests that institutional investors still have appetite for focused verticalized approaches, especially when backed by operators who've seen successful exits.
For B2B founders building marketplace businesses in unsexy industries, SNAK represents a new source of early-stage capital from investors who understand the unique dynamics of multi-sided platforms. The firm's focus on digitizing legacy industries also aligns with broader trends around vertical SaaS and industry-specific software that have produced exits like Veeva, Procore, and ServiceTitan.
What happens over the next few years will determine whether Nagar and Koopersmith's thesis plays out. If B2B marketplaces in construction, logistics, and industrial sectors can replicate even a fraction of the success seen in consumer platforms, SNAK's $50 million will look prescient. If not, the firm joins the ranks of thematic funds that bet too early on trends that took longer to materialize than LPs had patience for.
SNAK Venture Partners' successful fundraise demonstrates that emerging managers with domain expertise and strong anchor backing can still break through in a challenging LP environment. The firm's focus on vertical B2B marketplaces taps into a genuine whitespace - industries worth trillions that still operate on analog processes. Whether that thesis translates into the kind of venture returns that consumer marketplaces delivered over the past decade remains to be seen, but the LP appetite signals belief that digitization's next chapter happens in the enterprise sectors everyone else overlooked. For founders building marketplace businesses outside traditional tech hubs, SNAK offers both capital and a vote of confidence that not every billion-dollar outcome needs to start in San Francisco.
