The 81 Collection

The 81 Collection

An Early-Stage Firm for Un-Sexy Industries

Venture CapitalChicago, United Statesthe-81-collection
Open to pitchesFollows rounds

About

We are a collection of entrepreneurs who brought our offline industries online.

Now, we're backing the next-generation building across the 81% of U.S. GDP underserved by early-stage capital.


We built companies in un-sexy industries, and it was lonely when we started. Most venture capitalists said our industries were too capital intensive, low margin, or difficult to scale. We were outsiders.
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Now, we can look back at the $60 billion of value created and the 30,000 employees whose financial trajectories we altered. The very qualities that made our businesses unattractive early are now our greatest strengths.
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Our entrenched assets serve as a barrier to entry, our higher-quality revenue inextricably ties to our customer’s daily needs, and our loyal employees who once made $20 per hour now make $100K per year. We chose the harder path, built the right kind of businesses, and improved America.

A decade later, not much has changed in early-stage financing.

SaaS & SoftwareE-Commerce & MarketplacesFintechVenture Capital & Private Equity

Investment criteria

  1. Pre-seed

    Invests

  2. Seed

    Invests

  3. Series A

    —

  4. Series B

    —

  5. Growth

    —

Sectors
SaaS & SoftwareE-Commerce & MarketplacesFintechVenture Capital & Private Equity
Geographies
United States
Round role
Follows alongside a lead

Highlights

Highlights coming soon

Notable work and milestones will show up here.