Collide Capital, the venture firm founded by Brian Hollins and Aaron Samuels, has closed a $95 million Fund II, continuing its focus on early-stage companies across fintech, supply chain, and the future of work.
The firm, founded in 2021, closed its inaugural $66 million Fund I in 2022 and has since backed 75 companies. Hollins said the latest fund took approximately 13 months to raise and is expected to be deployed over the next three and a half years. Limited partners in Fund II include the University of California Endowment, which anchored the previous fund, alongside Accolade Partners, Fairview Capital, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan. The firm plans to write cheques of between $1 million and $3 million and aims to back at least 30 companies, having already invested in five.
Both founders bring significant pedigree to the firm. Hollins spent a decade across Goldman Sachs, Lightspeed, and Slow Ventures, while Samuels worked at Bain and Lightspeed before co-founding AfroTech, one of the largest technology conferences in the world. That track record has helped Collide Capital navigate a fundraising environment that has been particularly challenging for emerging fund managers.
The firm’s investment thesis centres on the infrastructure enabling the next wave of business transformation. “We’re most interested in platforms enabling automation, real-time collaboration, and faster, data-driven decision making,” Hollins said.
Beyond deploying the new fund, Hollins and Samuels said they are expanding Collide Campus, a programme launched in 2022 to develop the next generation of founders and venture capitalists. The undergraduate initiative, now active on more than 20 campuses including Harvard and Johns Hopkins, trains students in venture capital and entrepreneurship. A graduate fellowship programme places students directly alongside the Collide team as investors and apprentices. More than 50 students have passed through the programme so far, with alumni landing roles at firms including General Catalyst and Collide itself.
Samuels said the programme was born out of a gap both founders experienced firsthand. “We’re connecting the best and the brightest with venture capital to match their grit and determination to build businesses the world needs,” he said.
