Amplify News
9.18.2018
Announcing Amplify Partners III

By Sunil Dhaliwal

We are thrilled to announce Amplify Partners III, a $200M fund that will enable Amplify to double down on supporting the radically technical founders who apply computer science and machine intelligence to enterprise invention.

This fund marks our third capital raise in six years. We consider it a milestone given Amplify was founded in 2012, a time when early-stage enterprise investing was seriously out of fashion. It was also a time when conventional wisdom said that an enterprise-focused seed fund might not be feasible. We believed then, as we do now, that an intentional approach and commitment to integrity, focus and prioritizing long-term relationships, might just buck that trend. Six years later, Amplify has grown into an established early-stage firm with an expanded capability to support enterprise startups at both the Series A and Series Seed stages. We have invested in an incredible group of founders, resulting in a portfolio of which we are deeply proud. Most importantly, we’ve recruited some of the industry’s most talented, hard-working, and passionate investors and operators to join our team.

Our first two funds gave us the opportunity to work with nearly 50 early-stage teams to push the frontier of possibility in computer science and machine learning. We are thrilled that some of our earliest partnerships, such as BuddyBuild, LightCyber and Conjur, have achieved successful exits. And others, like Fastly and Datadog, continue to scale into category-defining juggernauts. Our excitement is undiminished as a new generation of companies, like Gremlin, Primer and mabl (congrats on their news today), are just beginning to reshape massive markets with their brilliant innovations.

Fund III is not only an opportunity to build on that momentum but it also symbolizes a humbling rite of passage for Amplify Partners. Our first fund in 2012 earned us a place among a small group of emerging micro-VCs, a category that has since grown to over 500 firms and counting. With the launch of Fund III we can confidently say that the steady growth of our team, brand, and capital base places us among the handful of firms that have graduated from ‘upstart’ to ‘established player’ in the early-stage VC landscape. And while mega-funds, sprawling multi-sector firms, and a new crop of micro-VCs might promise to remake venture capital in every conceivable way, we’re proud to say that our core principles will remain unchanged:

  • We will remain deeply focused on supporting founders who pioneer new applications of machine learning and those pushing the frontier of modern computing.
  • We will partner with technologists who have grand visions for what comes next. The mindbenders, data scientists, renowned roboticists, and enlightened systems engineers who wholeheartedly believe there’s a better way to a better world ahead
  • We will surround founders with deep expertise specific to their markets.

We must acknowledge those whose partnership has made Fund III possible. First, our deepest thanks to our limited partners, large and small, whose support is the foundation of everything we do. We appreciate the trust you continue to place in our team. Second, and most importantly, thanks to our founders and portfolio companies. Any success we ever achieve is simply a reflection of your talent and perseverance. We are grateful to be partners on your journey.

Onward.

Amplify Partners Team September 2018