When Masha Bucher got a DM from Alex Blania, she had no idea what he was talking about—but Bucher was ready to help. It was 2019, and Blania (then a Caltech academic) had just been rejected from Y Combinator.
“I was really angry and I think [Bucher] had liked a picture of the car I built when I was 16,” said Blania. “I just sent her a message saying: ‘Hey, I think you’re part of the YC application committee, you didn’t take me, and I think it’s a huge mistake…And she was like: ‘Hey Alex, I have no idea what this is about, but maybe I can help you in another way.’”
Bucher—who’d founded Day One Ventures in 2018 as a solo GP—would soon set up introductions for Blania in Silicon Valley that “helped shape my career,” he says. Then, when Blania cofounded Worldcoin with Sam Altman and Max Novendstern, Day One would become a Series A investor in 2021, alongside Andreessen Horowitz and CoinFund.
Worldcoin was valued at $3 billion in 2022, and this year the token has been climbing rapidly. Day One’s portfolio companies have also included Truebill, Remote, and Superhuman.
In a tough year for fundraising and a complex one for solo GPs, Day One has beaten the odds: The VC firm Bucher launched six years ago has closed its third fund at $150 million, Fortune can exclusively report. That far surpasses the firm’s original $100 million target, and I can only find one fund raised by a female solo GP this year that’s bigger (Basis Set raised $185 million).
Bucher’s background is unconventional for tech. Before she came to Silicon Valley, Bucher defected from Putin’s Russia, giving up her passport and ultimately severing as many ties with the country as she could. As a teenager, she was a public-facing member of the pro-Putin youth movement Nashi, and her seismic ideological transformation is the subject of the 2012 documentary Putin’s Kiss. Bucher’s willing to talk about that time: She is “categorically” against Putin and the war in Ukraine, and hasn’t returned to the country for years. But Bucher’s also careful—her family still lives in Russia.
When she made her way to the U.S., she founded a PR studio and began angel investing to build a track record. But raising that first fund was hard and she had to put her own skin in the game.
“My PR studio was making eight-figure revenues and was very profitable,” Bucher told Term Sheet. “I think I put up at least $2 million just to keep up the fund.”
But once that first fund was raised and deployed, it returned in just three years. The rapid return owed to Bucher’s early investment in Truebill, then valued at $15 million. A few years later, Truebill was acquired by Rocket for almost $1.3 billion.
Today, Day One’s portfolio companies are valued at more than $115 billion, and the firm has $450 million in assets under management. For Day One’s second fund, the net IRR is 48%, good for six times higher than the 2020 vintage’s median net IRR (for funds under $250 million), according to PitchBook.
From the founders’ side, Day One’s impact is especially strong when it comes to PR, said Adam Guild, CEO and cofounder of restaurant software startup Owner. He told Fortune that Bucher was able to take his startup’s nuts and bolts and retain the “simplest elements, giving journalists a lot more confidence and effectiveness in being able to relay the most important parts of our message.”
One institutional LP that Fortune spoke to described Day One’s “forward-looking” approach. And as Bucher looks to the future, she’s imagining a more end-to-end relationship between tech and regulators, where policymakers start understanding companies very early on.
“We can connect early-stage tech companies with the right people…to educate them about what these companies are building,” she said. “So, by the time these companies are big, the stakeholders are educated.”
Ultimately, I suspect Bucher has been so successful because she actively recognizes the value of communication and is incredibly proactive in bridging communication gaps. It’s something that’s evident in the “future of human” thesis under which Bucher’s deploying fund three—a process that’s already started with companies like cloud seeding startup Rainmaker and aerospace company Astroforge.
“I think the gap between society and the tech community keeps increasing, and I think that’s actually the biggest barrier for tech founders as they’re realizing their vision,” she said.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
VENTURE DEALS
- Amber Therapeutics, a London, U.K.-based developer of mixed urinary incontinence therapies, raised $100 million in Series A funding. New Enterprise Associates led the round and was joined by Intuitive Ventures, F-Prime Capital, Lightstone Ventures, and existing investors Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) and 8VC.
- Relay, a Raleigh, N.C.-based cloud communications platform for frontline teams, raised $35 million in Series B funding. G2 Venture Partners led the round and was joined by existing investors including Wind River Ventures and Sovereign's Capital.
- Moleculent, a Stockholm, Sweden-based developer of technology designed for studying the communication between cells in human tissue, raised $26 million in Series A funding. ARCH Venture Partners and Eir Ventures led the round and were joined by existing investors.
- Nexus Laboratories, a San Francisco-based zero-knowledge cryptography company, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Pantera Capital led the round and were joined by Dragonfly Capital, Faction Ventures, and Blockchain Builders Fund.
- Anterior, a New York City-based AI copilot for clinicians, raised $20 million in Series A funding. New Enterprise Associates led the round and was joined by Sequoia Capital, Blue Lion Global, and Neo.
- XONA, an Annapolis, M.D.-based secure user access platform for industrial operations, raised $18 million in funding from Energy Impact Partners.
- Zeliq, a Paris, France-based AI-powered sales management platform, raised $10 million in seed funding. Exor Ventures led the round and was joined by Resonance VC.
- ARX Robotics, a Munich, Germany-based developer of autonomous robots for defense and commercial applications, raised €9 million ($9.7 million) in seed funding. NATO Innovation Fund led the round and was joined by Project A Ventures and Discovery Ventures.
- FirmPilot, a Miami, Fla.-based AI-powered marketing platform for law firms, raised $7 million in Series A funding. Blumberg Capital led the round and was joined by Valor Ventures, SaaS Ventures, FJ Labs, and Connexa Capital.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- ARC recapitalized Aspenleaf, a Calgary, Canada-based oil and gas exploration and production company, for CAD $800 million ($581 million).
- Atlantic Street Capital invested an additional $70 million into Zips Car Wash, a Plano, Texas-based operator of car wash chains.
- Ardian acquired CampusParc, a Columbus, Ohio-based company that manages the parking facilities at The Ohio State University. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Blackford Capital acquired Eight12 Automation, an Irvine, Calif.-based automation and controls engineering company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Clarity Innovations, a portfolio company of Capitol Meridian Partners, merged with Chameleon Consulting Group, a Herndon, Va. and Raleigh, N.C.-based cyber operations consulting company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Greater Sum Ventures acquired Kologik, a Baton Rouge, La.-based provider of software for law enforcement agencies. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) agreed to acquire Belcan, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based provider of engineering, consulting, and technical services to the industrial, aerospace, and automotive industries, from AE Industrial Partners, for approximately $1.3 billion.
- OnBoard, a portfolio company of JMI Equity, acquired Govenda, a Pittsburgh, Pa.-based board portal and corporate governance software platform, from Growth Street Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OTHER
- Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE:BAH) acquired PAR Government Systems Corporation, a Rome, New York-based developer of defense products and software for the U.S. government. Financial terms were not disclosed.