Fika Ventures Raises $195 Million for Tech Investments

Westwood-based Fika Ventures has raised $195 million for two funds aimed at seed investing in software, fintech, marketplaces and health care information technology.

The two funds were initially announced in late August in a blog post on the venture capital firm’s website.

Fika’s first flagship fund raised $160 million and won’t be activated until 2022, according to co-founder and General Partner Eva Ho.

Fika’s Opportunity Fund I raised an additional $35 million earlier this year but wasn’t disclosed publicly until last month, Ho said. Opportunity Fund I was activated a few months ago and has already been tapped for a handful of companies’ investments.
 
Previously, Fika raised $41 million in its debut fund in 2017 and $77 million in 2019, according to Ho.

Fika has pro rata rights for 30 companies that its debut fund invested in. Ho said that, in a few instances, these rights were exercised with funds from the opportunity fund. The pro rata rights permit Fika to maintain its initial level of ownership percentage during later financing rounds.

Some companies Fika has invested in include Papaya Payments, a Sherman Oaks-based bill payer; Formative, a Santa Monica-based platform for K-12 teachers to create assessments; WeeCare Inc., a Marina del Ray-based early childhood care provider; and Atticus Law, a downtown-based online legal advice and referral platform.

Ho previously helped build three successful venture-backed businesses, including Santa Monica-based Applied Semantics, which Google acquired in 2003.

She also was involved in building Century City-based data company Factual Inc. and Navigating Cancer Inc., a Seattle-based patient relationship management platform.

Ho co-founded Fika along with the firm’s General Partner TX Zhuo in 2016. The firm has accumulated assets under management of $300 million with investments in roughly 40 companies. Fika Ventures is a seed-stage fund that has been funding mostly business-to-business startups.
 
“Fika” is a translation from Svenska, a language Swedes speak. It means “to have coffee,” which is a Swedish state of mind that translates into stepping away from routines to connect with others.

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