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Westwood Ventures Newsletter — April 2022

Content at the intersection of entrepreneurship, venture capital, and our UCLA community.

Written by

Edward Tsai

Published on

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2 min

IN THIS ISSUE: Our 2022 Fund is opening soon, read feature stories on Classiq and Deserve, portfolio companies in the news — including a $180M round by Jeeves co-invested with a16z, UCLA received $5 million from Herb Alpert Foundation, Investor Reports available now, and more.

Westwood’s 2022 Fund Opening Soon

We are preparing to launch the next Westwood Ventures Fund to our community soon. Right now, the fund is open exclusively to our existing investors. Click below If you would like to learn more about venture capital or how to invest with Westwood.

Westwood Portfolio Spotlights

Classiq provides developers across industries a platform for developing quantum computing software and deploying it seamlessly on clouds and hardware devices of their choice. We co-invested alongside Wing Capital (prior investor in Snowflake), Entree Capital, Lip Bu Tan, and other established investors. Read Feature Story »

Deserve offers credit cards using machine learning and many non-traditional data points that correlate to the user’s credit worthiness. We co-invested alongside Goldman Sachs, Sallie Mae, Accel, Mission Holdings, and other established investors. Read Feature Story »

Westwood Portfolio Companies in the News

FOR EXISTING INVESTORS

Thinking of becoming an investor? Access Materials »

Semi-Annual Investor Reports

Our latest Investor Reports are now available. These are semi-annual updates covering our fund’s performance and some of the exciting steps our portfolio companies have taken over the past ~6 months. Visit our Club portal to view your reports and read other exclusive updates from Managing Partner Edward Tsai (’02, ’04) and our team.

Campus and Community Update

With $5 million from Herb Alpert Foundation, UCLA will renovate 46 practice rooms in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music Schoenberg Music Building to include enhanced acoustics, modern LED lighting, and hardwired Wi-Fi. The practice rooms have not been fully refurbished since their construction in 1955. Learn More »

Q&A with AV’s Executive Team

We sat down with Founder & CEO Mike Collins, CIO Anton Simunovic, and President & COO Colin Van Ostern to discuss their thoughts on the macro economic environment, venture, and AV’s development.

AV Talent Referrals

Interested in joining a cutting-edge startup or know someone who might be? Our portfolio companies are growing and always looking for high-caliber talent. Check out their open positions on our job board. If you find a match, fill out this short form, and we will try to make a personal referral. Visit Job Board »

Want to learn more?
View all our available funds and secure data rooms, or schedule an intro call.

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Contact [email protected] for additional information. To see additional risk factors and investment considerations, visit av-funds.com/disclosures.

Written by

Edward Tsai

Edward has over 15 years of investment and strategy experience in the U.S. and China, including a successful track record with investments including Cruise Automation ($1 billion acquisition by GM), Life360 (IPO), Palantir (IPO), and Brave Software as well as deep operating experience at technology and cybersecurity companies 360 and Qianxin, and service on the limited partner advisory committees at Cendana Capital and Ten Eleven Ventures.

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