Just a few short years ago, the funding opportunities for startups here in Sacramento was very limited. Seeing a need for venture capital for early stage companies, three successful business people; Lokesh Sikaria, Denise Ferre, and Vaibhav Nadgauda founded a new fund, Moneta Ventures in 2014 which has since become Sacramento’s largest venture capital firm.
As an Associate Partner at local venture capital fund, Moneta Ventures, Sabya Das, focuses on the development and analysis of Moneta Ventures’ many internet and software based portfolio companies. Sabya evaluates new opportunities for investment and assists Moneta’s portfolio companies in a variety of operational roles. I met with Sabya at Moneta’s Folsom offices where we had a chat about a broad range of topics related to the Moneta, venture capital, entrepreneurship, and the Sacramento startup ecosystem, including:
- The origins of Moneta Ventures
- What verticals and stages Moneta looks to invest in and what their typical investment range is
- Some of the local startups in their investment portfolio
- What kinds of things they want to see in a startup before being pitched for money
- The main things the Moneta team are looking for in a startup that makes them attractive to invest in
- Some of the main shortcomings/gaps they typically see in startups that want to pitch VCs
- The changes they’ve seen in the local startup community since launching in 2014
- What they think the Sacramento funding landscape will be like a year from now and five years from now
- Thoughts on Sacramento’s startup ecosystem; our strengths and what we need here to improve and make the scene here stronger and more competitive
- Will we ever see a Sacramento unicorn
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