Entrepreneur To Launch Step5 Ventures; Early-Stage Venture Fund
This story was written by Rory Maher.
Noah Doyle sold his company MyPoints for $112.5 million in 2001 and now it looks like he's aiming to become a venture capitalist specializing in early-stage bets. Doyle is launching an early-stage venture fund called Stage5 Ventures, according to peHUB, though details regarding how much money the fund would seek to raise or the potential LP investors involved were scant. The fund's specific industry focus was not disclosed, but Doyle oversaw Google's geospatial products after selling his company so it wouldn't be surprising if the fund invested in digital media and other tech-focused companies.
This move follows a flurry of announcements from VC funds and entrepreneurs recently of the launch of funds focused on smaller, early-stage bets. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz's seed-stage fund said it would seek to raise $250 million for investments in the $500,000 to $1 million range. This followed announcements by Spark Capital and Sequoia Capital that they, too, were forming or investing in funds that focus on smaller seed bets.
By Rory Maher