High Hit Rate — CapitalX

Cindy Bi

Oct 23·2 min read

CapitalX has raised more than $5M since August and is open for new LPs for 2021 Q1. Please apply on my website or AngelList.

Below is a summary of my previous portfolio breakout winners by valuations (estimated range):

• 3 x $1B+ (unicorn exit Cruise valued $19B in 2019)
• 6 x $500M+(with Retool nearly a unicorn);
• 10 x $250M+;
• 3 x $100M, etc.

This also helps to demonstrate why and how an annual portfolio of 20 startups with “High Hit Rate” may work very well. Imagine — if the initial check is big enough for 2% — 5% ownership (not yet a lead position).

$1B+

1. Cruise — self driving cars, Unicorn exit in 2016. Valued $19B in 2019.

2. Zapier — API integration and automation. $1.3M raised.

3. Rippling — Payroll and employee management platform, valued $1.35B.

$500M+

4. Algolia — Search API: Site, App, Geo. $184M raised.

5. ShipBob — tech-enabled 3PL that fulfills ecommerce orders for DTC brands. $131M raised.

6. SendBird — Chat APIs: Text, Audio, Video. $121M raised.

7. People.ai — Revenue Intelligence: AI for Sales and Marketing. $100M raised.

8. Boom — Supersonic plane. $160M raised.

9. Retool — Build internal tools remarkably fast. $75M raised, nearly a unicorn.

$250M+

• Epic! — Leading digital library for kids. $52M raised.
• EightSleep — #1 Smart mattress and sleep fitness. $70M raised.
• Bevi —Smart water cooler with pure, flavored and sparking water. $60M raised.
• Go1 — Enterprise on-line learning platform. $84M raised.
• BitMovin — provides adaptive streaming infrastructure for video publishers and integrators with fastest cloud encoding and HTML5 Player. $62M raised.
• FlutterWave — Payment APIs in Africa. $65M raised.
• Proxy — Touchless workplace and mobile identity. $59M raised.
• Redacted — Collaborate. $82M raised.
• UpKeep — Modern, intuitive, and mobile first CMMS that is proven to streamline the work order process.$49M raised.
• LambdaSchool — Free online web dev and data science education: pay with ISA after getting hired with annual $50k+ income! $122M raised.

$100M+

• Flirtey — real-time delivery by flying robots. $16M raised.
• Gravitational — Remote access and secure deployments for developers via SSH and Kubernetes. $29M raised.
• Zeplin — Connected space for design and product teams. $1.4M raised.

$50M+

• Platzi — Online education platform in LATAM for marketing, coding, business and design. $16M raised.
• Paperspace — Cloud Machine Learning, AI, and effortless GPU infrastructure. $19M raised.
• TBC — full previous portfolio list here.