Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs
Bling Capital’s Ben Ling (left) and Kyle Lui. (Bling Photos)
Bling Capital has raised $270 million for its fourth fund as the 6-year-old venture capital firm looks to invest in more early stage tech startups across enterprise software, fintech, marketplaces, healthcare, and consumer software.
Ben Ling, a former general partner at Khosla Ventures and early backer of Lyft and Instacart, founded Bling in 2018. The firm, which raised $212 million for its third fund, has backed more than 160 companies at the pre-seed and seed stages.
The fourth fund consists of a flagship fund, as well as an “opportunity fund” to invest in more mature companies.
Bling typically invests $500,000 to $3 million, primarily as lead investor.
The Miami-based firm mainly focuses on the Bay Area and New York City, but also invests in companies based across North America.
Bling is keeping a close eye on the Seattle tech ecosystem. Kyle Lui, a longtime Silicon Valley venture capitalist, recently moved to Seattle and is a general partner at Bling.
Lui tells GeekWire that “we would like to do more in the Seattle market given that I’m based here and there is strong technical talent.”
Bling recently invested in Seattle-based Loti, a startup that helps public figures find deepfakes.
It also has one of its largest investments out of the latest fund in a Seattle-based company that is in stealth mode, Lui said.
Lui said Bling is seeing more activity in “vertical AI,” and is backing companies in sectors such as construction, manufacturing, capital markets, and legal.
Bling raised its fourth fund amid a significant slowdown in fundraising for VC firms.
A unique aspect of Bling is its specialization on helping founders find product market fit.
Ling and Lui have known each other for decades. Ling was the first angel investor in Lui’s startup, ChoicePass, a corporate perks and employee rewards platform that was acquired by Salesforce in 2012.
Previously: Longtime Silicon Valley investor on the biggest challenge for Seattle’s startup ecosystem
