Vermilion Cliffs Ventures Secures $25 Million for Its Second Fund

Vermilion Cliffs Ventures, a venture capital firm founded by solo female GP Ashley Smith, has announced the close of its second fund with $25 million in capital.

The firm, which focuses on backing technical founders, particularly those building in AI infrastructure, security, and dev tools, aims to invest in at least 25 companies over the next two and a half years. With an average check size of $750,000, the firm has already backed six companies.

Smith, who raised the new fund in four months, with much of the capital coming from existing investors, hopes to help founders with go-to-market strategies. Having worked in marketing at Twilio, Facebook, GitHub, and GitLab, she understands the challenges of selling to developers and security teams. "Selling to developers and security teams is its own discipline, and most founders learn it the expensive way with time," she said. "I try to help them skip mistakes I've made or seen other founders make."

The firm's debut fund, which raised $13 million, backed 35 companies, including the cybersecurity startup Keycard and the AI infrastructure company CopilotKit. With its second fund, Vermilion Cliffs Ventures aims to continue its support for technical founders in their growth journey.