RareBreed Ventures

ActiveVenture Capital

Updated: Dec 24, 2025 ·

About

RareBreed Ventures is a pre-seed fund that invests in exceptional founders primarily outside of large tech ecosystems, earlier than everyone else. We write checks of up to $250K as the first or one of the first investors in exceptional startups.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Sep 1, 2023	Dzone Finance	$1.0M Series A	—	—
Oct 1, 2022	Resilia	$35.0M Series B	—	42Phi Ventures, 9Yards Capital, Accel, Advisors Fund LLC, Asylum Ventures, ATX Venture Partners, Backstage Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Bungalow Capital, Collab Capital, Collaborative Seed & Growth Partners, Cultivation Capital, Digital Currency Group, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Expert Dojo, Fenway Summer, Fika Ventures, First Round Capital, F-Prime Capital Partners, Framework Venture Partners, Gaingels, General Catalyst, GreaterGoodSociety, Haystack, Include Venture Partners, LocalGlobe, M34 Capital, Mucker Capital, NewMe Accelerator, North Island Ventures, Otherwise Fund, Pillar VC, Sequoia Capital, Share Ventures, TechSquare Labs, Upfront Ventures, Vibe Capital, Aaron Skonnard, Azeem Azhar, Baron Davis, Eric Rea, Esther Dyson, John M. Mueller, Mathilde Collin, Mike Hudack, Oscar Pierre, Sahil Lavingia, Sahin Boydas, Sam Palmisano, Scott Belsky, Zachary Sims
Jul 1, 2022	ImIn	$1.0M Seed	—	42Phi Ventures, Accel, Backstage Capital, Collab Capital, Haystack, Include Venture Partners, M34 Capital, NewMe Accelerator, Share Ventures, TechSquare Labs, Upfront Ventures, Aaron Skonnard, Baron Davis, Eric Rea
Jun 1, 2022	Dzone Finance	$2.0M Seed	—	Justin Sun
Apr 1, 2022	Hairtelligence	$5.0M Seed	—	42Phi Ventures, Accel, Backstage Capital, Collab Capital, Convoz, Haystack, Include Venture Partners, M34 Capital, NewMe Accelerator, Serena Ventures, Share Ventures, TechSquare Labs, Upfront Ventures, Aaron Skonnard, Baron Davis, Eric Rea
Mar 1, 2022	Donde	$3.0M Seed	—	42Phi Ventures, Accel, Backstage Capital, Collab Capital, Haystack, Include Venture Partners, M34 Capital, NewMe Accelerator, Share Ventures, TechSquare Labs, Upfront Ventures, Baron Davis, Eric Rea
Dec 1, 2021	Ready Player Me	$13.0M Series A	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Dreamers VC, Entrepreneur First, foobar.vc, Footwork, GAMEGROOVE Capital, Geek Ventures, Gigafund, Goat Capital, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Hoxton Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Makers Fund, Pantera Capital, Pioneer Fund, Preston-Werner Ventures, Presto Ventures, Spero Ventures, Spring Capital, Sunset Ventures, The Hit Forge, TQ Ventures, Tribe Capital, UpHonest Capital, Zigg Capital, Arash Ferdowsi, Artur Sychov, Brian Corrigan, Derrick Li, Ed Zimmerman, Elar Nellis, Gautam Shah, Hubert Thieblot, Josh Spear, Justin Mateen, Kaarel Kotkas, Kevin Hart, Kevin Lin, Markus Villig, Mike Greenfield, Peter Vesterbacka, Riccardo Zacconi, Sam Altman, Scott Belsky, Sebastian Knutsson, Sebastien Borget
Jul 1, 2021	Acquire.com	$6.0M Seed	—	10100, 2xN, 42Phi Ventures, 8VC, Kevin Hartz, Accel, Acrew Capital, Active Capital, Adapt Ventures, AirAngels, Alliance Healthcare Foundation, Altair Capital Management, Alt Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Angel investor, AngelList, Anthemis Group, Anti fund, Array Ventures, Audacious Ventures, Authentic Ventures, Awesome People Ventures, Awesome Ventures, Backstage Capital, Bain Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Base10 (Base10 Partners), TJ Nahigian, Bedrock Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Bond, BoxGroup, Brainchild, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Browder Capital, C2 Investment, Capital Factory, CapitalX, Chemistry VC, Chicago Ventures, Climate Capital, Collab Capital, Color Capital, Comal Ventures, Contrary Capital, Convective Capital, Craft Ventures, Cubit Capital, Cyphr VC, Daffy, Define Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Kevin Ding, DOMO Invest, Elephant Partners, Emergent Ventures, Fifth Wall, FirstMark Capital, FJ Labs, Foundation Capital, Founder Collective, Founders Fund, FreshTracks Capital, General Catalyst, Greylock, Harlem Capital, Haystack, Heavybit, Helion Venture Partners, Helium-3 Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Hyper, IDEO CoLab Ventures, Immeasurable, Include Venture Partners, Infinite Niches, Initialized Capital, In-Q-Tel, Intuition Capital, Investo, Jetstream, JLL Spark, KAAN Ventures, Kepler Operator’s Fund, Kima Ventures, LAUNCH, Lightspeed Venture Partners, LocalGlobe, Locus Ventures, Logos Labs, LOI Venture, LombardStreet Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, M13, M34 Capital, Mucker Capital, Musha Ventures, NewMe Accelerator, NextView Ventures, Not Boring Capital, Notion Capital, Offline Ventures, Operator Collective, Anh-Tho Chuong Degroote, OS Fund, Outcast Ventures, Outlander Labs, Paradigm, Paradox Capital, Pareto Holdings, Pioneer Fund, Point72 Ventures, Positive Sum VC, Practical Venture Capital, Predictive VC, Proton Enterprises, Prototype Capital, Quartz, Rainfall Ventures, Range VC, Ravelin Capital, Redpoint Ventures, REMUS Capital, Rising Tide Partners, SaaSholic Fund, Saga, SailPoint, Sandalphon Capital, Scale Asia Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Shaan's All Access Fund, Share Ventures, Shield Capital, Shrug Capital, Silence, Slow Ventures, SNR, Soma Capital, SRB Ventures, Starship Ventures, TechSquare Labs, Techstars, The Club, The Hit Forge, Thirty Five Ventures, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Trajectory Ventures, Tribe Capital, Trucks Venture Capital, Trust Fund, Twenty Two Ventures, Uncork Capital, Upfront Ventures, Upside Partnership, Venrock, Vertical Venture Partners, Vibe Capital, Victress Capital, Alex Rodriguez, Weekend Fund, WorkLife Ventures, Y Combinator, York IE, Aaron Skonnard, Adam Guild, Alex Lieberman, Anthony Pompliano, Babak Nivi, Baron Davis, Ben Tossell, Bryce Hall, Catherine Wood, Chris Herd, Chris Murphy, Cory Levy, Daniel Kan, Dharmesh Shah, Dylan Field, Eric Rea, Evan Moore, Frederic Kerrest, Gabriel Jarrosson, Greg Isenberg, Griffin Johnson, Harry Hurst, Ian Hogarth, Immad Akhund, Jaime Schmidt, James Park, Jesse Leimgruber, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Joshua Webster, Julian Shapiro, Justin Mateen, Justin Welsh, Karim Atiyeh, Keith Masback, Kevin Hart, Kunal Shah, Kyle Vogt, Kyle York, Larry Gadea, Marc Benioff, Marcy Simon, Mark Benning, Mathilde Collin, Matt Bellamy, Matt Gibstein, Matthew Dellavedova, Max Mullen, Moshe Lifschitz, Musaab Hakami, Nate Cavanaugh, Paulo Silveira, Paul Yacoubian, Priyank Chandra, Quinn Slack, Rajiv Bala, Rich Miner, Ron Pragides, Roxanne Varza, Sahil Lavingia, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Sam Parr, Scott Belsky, Scot Wingo, Siqi Chen, Steve Schlafman, Tony Jamous, Vinay Hiremath, Yumin Choi, Zach Segal, Zack Kanter
Jul 1, 2021	Plerk	$1.0M Seed	—	42Phi Ventures, Accel, Amadeus Capital Partners, Backstage Capital, Collab Capital, EWA Capital, Haystack, Iluminar Ventures, Include Venture Partners, Latitud, M34 Capital, Magma Partners, NewMe Accelerator, Share Ventures, Soma Capital, Sommet AB, TechSquare Labs, Twenty Two Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Upload Ventures, Aaron Skonnard, Baron Davis, Claire Diaz-Ortiz, Eric Rea, Javier Diaz Evans, Miguel Mc Allister
Jun 1, 2021	Givingli	$4.0M Seed	—	186 Ventures, 2xN, 42Phi Ventures, Kevin Hartz, Accel, Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Backstage Capital, Caffeinated Capital, Cherry Ventures, Coatue, Collab Capital, Construct Capital, Countdown Capital, Craft Ventures, Cubit Capital, Electric Capital, Flexcap, Floodgate, Founders Fund, Goat Capital, Gumi Cryptos Capital, Haun Ventures, Haystack, Incisive Ventures, Include Venture Partners, Lux Capital, M34 Capital, Monta Vista Capital, NewMe Accelerator, NOMO Ventures, Paradigm, Picus Capital, Ravelin Capital, Saga, Scalar Capital, Seven Seven Six, Share Ventures, Sound Ventures, Stash Ventures, TechSquare Labs, The Hit Forge, Thirty Five Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Y Combinator, Aaron Skonnard, Andrew Steinwold, Balaji Srinivasan, Ben Silbermann, Chris Schaepe, Dylan Field, Eric Rea, Julian Wright, Justin David Blau, Justin Mateen, Koen Koeppen, Mark Cuban, Regan Bozman, Rob May, Rob Meyerson, Scott Belsky, Tim Ferriss
May 1, 2021	Rally	$30.0M Series B	—	42Phi Ventures, Accel, Backstage Capital, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Collab Capital, Drive Capital, FJ Labs, Haystack, Include Venture Partners, M34 Capital, Matchstick Ventures, NewMe Accelerator, Rucker Park Capital, Share Ventures, Social Leverage, TCG (The Chernin Group), TechSquare Labs, Techstars, Upfront Ventures, Aaron Skonnard, Baron Davis, Eric Rea, Mark Pincus
May 1, 2021	Esper	$30.0M Series B	—	42Phi Ventures, Accel, Alumni Ventures, Backstage Capital, Bascom Ventures, Battery Ventures, Collab Capital, Energy Impact Partners, Haystack, Include Venture Partners, M34 Capital, Madrona Ventures, NewMe Accelerator, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Parkway VC, Pioneer Fund, Qualcomm Ventures, Root Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Share Ventures, SOSV, Spero Ventures, TechSquare Labs, Ubiquity Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Aaron Skonnard, Alain Hanover, Baron Davis, Eric Rea, Naveen Jain
Mar 1, 2021	Bevy	$40.0M Series C	—	2045 ventures, 42Phi Ventures, Accel, ACME Capital, Acre Venture Partners, Alpha Edison, Altalurra Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Backstage Capital, Chingona Ventures, Collab Capital, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Gaingels, Ganas Ventures, Haystack, Jett Fein, Include Venture Partners, Insight Partners, M13, M34 Capital, NewMe Accelerator, New Voices Fund, NFX, Openview Venture Partners, OVO Fund, Plug & Play Ventures, Reign Ventures, Serena Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Share Ventures, SNR, Soma Capital, Supply Change Capital, TechSquare Labs, Tribe Capital, Twenty Two Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Vamos Ventures, Vitalize Venture Group, Y Combinator, Zeev Capital, Aaron Skonnard, Baron Davis, Bradley Horowitz, Charlie Songhurst, Dennis Steele, Eric Rea, George Ruan, Matt Brezina
Feb 1, 2021	Titan	$13.0M Series A	—	305 Ventures, 75 & Sunny, 9Yards Capital, Kevin Hartz, A* Capital (A Star Capital), Accel, Addition, Adjacent, Altimeter Capital, Alumni Ventures, Alven, Andreessen Horowitz, Jana Messerschmidt, Archetype, Banana Capital, Benchmark, Bond, Buckley Ventures, C2 Investment, Coatue, Contrary Capital, Converge Venture Partners, Daybreak Partners, Drive Capital, Scott Hartley, Founders Fund, Frontier Ventures, Future Shape, General Catalyst, Goodwater Capital, GSV Acceleration, Human Capital, IrishAngels, Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, Motivate Ventures, NextView Ventures, Paradigm, Pioneer Fund, Playground Global, Portal Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Rebel Fund, Ribbit Capital, S28 Capital, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Smash Capital, Social Capital, SoftBank Investment Advisers, Sound Ventures, Sozo Ventures, SQN Venture Partners, Sunset Ventures, SV Angel, ThirdLove, Tiger Global Management, Tribe Capital, Uncork Capital, Verified Capital, Visionaire Ventures, Wollef Ventures, WorkLife Ventures, Y Combinator, Alexis Bonillo, Alice Zhang, Antoine Martin, Biz Stone, Derrick Li, Guillaume Luccisano, Jared Leto, John Collison, Julia Hartz, Justin Mateen, Louis Beryl, Mark Cuban, Peter Reinhardt, Phil Libin, Rashaun Williams, Seth Goldman, Zander Lurie
Dec 1, 2020	Bot MD	$5.0M Series A	—	42Phi Ventures, Accel, Backstage Capital, Collab Capital, Floodgate, Haystack, Include Venture Partners, M34 Capital, NewMe Accelerator, SeaX Ventures, Share Ventures, TechSquare Labs, Upfront Ventures, Vertex Ventures HC, Y Combinator, Aaron Skonnard, Baron Davis, Eric Rea
Feb 1, 2020	Esper	$8.0M Series A	—	42Phi Ventures, Accel, Alumni Ventures, Backstage Capital, Bascom Ventures, Collab Capital, Energy Impact Partners, Haystack, Include Venture Partners, M34 Capital, Madrona Ventures, NewMe Accelerator, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Parkway VC, Pioneer Fund, Qualcomm Ventures, Root Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Share Ventures, SOSV, Spero Ventures, TechSquare Labs, Ubiquity Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Aaron Skonnard, Alain Hanover, Baron Davis, Eric Rea, Naveen Jain, Bessemer Venture Partners, Cota Capital, DFJ, Streamlined Ventures, Thomson Reuters Ventures, Threshold Ventures
Dec 1, 2019	Matrix	$470K Seed	—	Kevin Hartz, Andreessen Horowitz, Casa Verde Capital, Catapult Capital, Comal Ventures, Craft Ventures, Founders Fund, Heretic Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Partners Resolute, Saga, Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, Thrive Capital, Y Combinator, Jacob Kerzner, Jared Leto, Michael Abramson, Philip Kaplan, Scott Belsky, Yishan Wong
Oct 1, 2018	Titan	$3.0M Seed	—	Jana Messerschmidt, Electric Capital, Seven Seven Six, Sunset Ventures, Thirty Five Ventures, Y Combinator, Alice Zhang, Andre Iguodala, Baron Davis, Brendan O'Driscoll, Seth Goldman
Aug 1, 2018	Bot MD	$2.0M Seed	—	42Phi Ventures, Accel, AME Cloud Ventures, Backstage Capital, City Light Capital, Collab Capital, First Round Capital, Floodgate, M.G. Siegler, Hardware Club, Haystack, Include Venture Partners, Klossy, KRM Interests LLC, M34 Capital, NewMe Accelerator, Next Play Ventures, Night Capital, Owl Capital, Pareto Holdings, Point72 Ventures, SeaX Ventures, Share Ventures, Spark Capital, SV Angel, TechSquare Labs, Upfront Ventures, Aaron Skonnard, Baron Davis, Charlie Cheever, Eric Rea, Jeremy Stoppelman, Mark Pincus, MG Siegler, Mike Krieger, Scott Belsky, Spencer Kimball, Taz Patel
May 1, 2018	Esper	$4.0M Seed	—	42Phi Ventures, Accel, Alumni Ventures, Backstage Capital, Bascom Ventures, Collab Capital, Energy Impact Partners, Haystack, Include Venture Partners, M34 Capital, NewMe Accelerator, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Parkway VC, Pioneer Fund, Qualcomm Ventures, Root Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Share Ventures, SOSV, Spero Ventures, TechSquare Labs, Ubiquity Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Aaron Skonnard, Alain Hanover, Baron Davis, Eric Rea, Naveen Jain

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at RareBreed Ventures.

Jonathan Kroll

Venture Partner

McKeever “Mac” Conwell

Managing Partner

Leadership Team

Key people at RareBreed Ventures.

Jonathan Kroll

Venture Partner

M“

McKeever “Mac” Conwell

Managing Partner

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

RareBreed Ventures is a pre-seed venture capital firm focused on investing in exceptional founders, particularly those outside major tech hubs like Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston. The firm prioritizes underrepresented founders and markets often overlooked by traditional venture capital, with investments spanning sectors such as financial services, fintech, healthcare, fashion/beauty, marketing, and water technology innovation. RareBreed’s mission centers on bridging the early-stage funding gap by providing founder-friendly capital and active strategic support, helping startups scale solutions that address critical challenges, including water treatment and climate resilience. Their investment philosophy emphasizes long-term partnerships, founder control, and leveraging regional ecosystem advantages to accelerate growth[1][2][3][4][5].

Origin Story

Founded in 2020 by McKeever “Mac” Conwell II, a former seed-stage fund manager at Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) and two-time founder, RareBreed Ventures emerged from his vision to back underrepresented founders earlier than other investors. Mac built the fund’s LP network from scratch, publicly marketing RareBreed on Twitter, and closed a $10M Fund I in early 2022 with support from notable investors like Alpaca VC and Insight Partners. The fund’s focus evolved to concentrate on pre-seed investments in founders outside large tech ecosystems, emphasizing diversity and inclusion. Despite a challenging fundraising journey involving over 1,000 meetings, RareBreed has established a strong track record and plans to launch a larger $75M+ second fund[3][4].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Concentrated pre-seed investments ($50K to $500K) with founder-friendly convertible notes and SAFE agreements to preserve founder control and facilitate future fundraising.
Network Strength: Strong partnerships with research institutions, utilities, and industry players, especially in water technology, to help portfolio companies overcome commercialization barriers.
Track Record: Fund I invested in 28 companies, achieving a 1.64x MOIC and 1.57 TVPI by end of 2021, with 64% underrepresented founders and 75% outside major tech hubs.
Operating Support: Hands-on involvement in validating technology, refining business models, navigating regulatory landscapes, and forging strategic partnerships.
Focus on Underrepresented Founders: Emphasis on diversity with significant representation of POC and female executives in portfolio companies[2][4][5].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

RareBreed Ventures rides the growing trend of decentralizing venture capital away from traditional tech hubs, addressing the funding gap for underrepresented founders and overlooked markets. Their focus on water technology innovation aligns with increasing global urgency around water scarcity, climate resilience, and environmental sustainability. By investing early in pre-seed startups developing solutions in water treatment, infrastructure monitoring, and resource recovery, RareBreed is positioned to influence the emerging ecosystem of climate tech and impact investing. Their timing is critical as regulatory pressures and market demand for sustainable water solutions intensify, creating favorable conditions for their portfolio companies to scale and generate impact alongside financial returns[2][4].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, RareBreed Ventures aims to expand its impact by launching a larger second fund ($75M+), continuing to back diverse founders and pioneering technologies in water and other sectors. Trends such as climate change adaptation, emerging contaminants, and circular economy principles will shape their investment focus. Their influence is likely to grow as they build a robust innovation ecosystem that bridges early-stage capital gaps and fosters scalable solutions to pressing global challenges. RareBreed’s founder-centric, network-driven approach positions them as a key player in democratizing venture capital and accelerating impact-driven innovation outside traditional tech corridors[2][4].

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Concentrated pre-seed investments ($50K to $500K) with founder-friendly convertible notes and SAFE agreements to preserve founder control and facilitate future fundraising.
Network Strength: Strong partnerships with research institutions, utilities, and industry players, especially in water technology, to help portfolio companies overcome commercialization barriers.
Track Record: Fund I invested in 28 companies, achieving a 1.64x MOIC and 1.57 TVPI by end of 2021, with 64% underrepresented founders and 75% outside major tech hubs.
Operating Support: Hands-on involvement in validating technology, refining business models, navigating regulatory landscapes, and forging strategic partnerships.
Focus on Underrepresented Founders: Emphasis on diversity with significant representation of POC and female executives in portfolio companies[2][4][5].