Alpaca VC has successfully secured $78 million in commitments for its third fund and has also unveiled the new Alpaca Real Estate platform. Founded in 2013 by Ryan Freedman, Alpaca initially directed its investments towards real estate-focused startups. This multi-stage venture capital firm employs a research-driven strategy, targeting investments at the convergence of the physical and digital realms.
While continuing to invest in proptech and construction tech, Alpaca expanded its horizons beyond these sectors in 2020. Presently, it allocates funds to commerce enablement, blockchain infrastructure, consumer technology, the future of work, fintech, and the creator economy.
With Fund III, Alpaca’s total capital commitments have reached $194 million. The firm maintains its focus on seed deals, typically with an average investment size ranging from $1 million to $2 million. Similar to its previous funds, Alpaca intends to build a portfolio of approximately 30 companies with Fund III, deploying the capital over the next three to four years, according to Aubrie Pagano, the general partner.
Pagano emphasized their active role in helping portfolio companies advance to the next phase of growth. This includes providing support for downstream capital needs and facilitating valuable customer introductions and partnerships.
In the realm of new fund announcements, Alpaca joins a list of firms securing fresh capital commitments, including Mercury Fund, Enza Capital, Mythos Ventures, P1 Ventures, Connect Ventures, Fuse, Blockchain Capital, and Unconventional Ventures.
Meanwhile, the Alpaca Real Estate (ARE) platform, serving as a private equity real estate fund, reflects the firm’s history as Corigin Ventures. The ARE initiative stemmed from a desire by one of its anchor limited partners to leverage Alpaca’s industry expertise in exploring opportunities within the built world. This new vehicle has a target of $250 million and aims to invest in emerging real estate asset classes as well as traditional undervalued real estate, deploying institutional capital for these purposes.
To lead the ARE platform, Daniel Carr and Peter Weiss have joined Alpaca as partners, and it will operate independently of the venture capital fund. Several U.S. pension funds advised by GCM Grosvenor anchor the ARE initiative.
Since 2020, Alpaca has significantly expanded its team, including the addition of Aubrie Pagano and five others, and launched Built World Fund I in 2022. They have also expanded their Field Study program.
Within the Field Study program, the team conducts 90-day research sprints to explore investable areas of the market. These sprints generate valuable market insights and targeted investment opportunities.
While not every research sprint results in an investment, it equips Alpaca with a nuanced perspective that enables them to act swiftly when promising opportunities arise in the market.
“Half of our investments in 2022 came from our Field Study work,” Pagano noted. “We are able to win deals and get up to speed really fast because we have this very nuanced point of view on what we need to see.”
