Brian Hollins and Aaron Samuels are working to redirect capital towards founders often overlooked by traditional venture capital — not for lack of merit, but lack of access. At Collide Capital, the check is just the starting point; the firm’s strategy centers on building an ecosystem to support growth beyond the initial investment.
“We’re activating a network around our founders, partners and a community of operators and investors that continue to support one another,” said Samuels, who recently moved from New York to San Francisco to open a new Collide office (disclosure: Samuels serves on ImpactAlpha’s board of directors). “The energy out here is real, and our team is here to deepen our presence, connect with founders and keep building.”
Samuels and Hollins started in 2019 with a $1.3 million proof-of-concept fund, built on the idea that the communities, universities and institutions that shaped their careers could work together to identify and support the next generation of founders. Collide’s $66 million first fund validated that approach. Now, with its $95 million second fund, the firm is doubling down and bringing early investors along.
Several limited partners in Collide’s first fund, including the University of California Endowment, re-upped in the new fund. New LPs include JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Fairview Capital and Accolade Partners.
“Fund I confirmed our belief that backing diverse founders at the intersection of fintech, supply chain, and future of work drives both meaningful returns and measurable impact,” Samuels told ImpactAlpha. “When we combine early-stage operational support with underrepresented perspectives, we unlock solutions that scale commercially and socially.”
The follow-on fund will invest in the same sectors with the same lens, “only now with larger checks,” he said. “Impact has always been embedded in the investment thesis rather than treated as a separate bucket.”
Early capital
Collide’s second fund writes pre-seed to Series A checks ranging from $1 million to $3 million, up from average checks of about $750,000 in its first fund.
Collide aims to invest in at least 30 companies over three and a half years. It has backed five to date, including New York-based Jelou, which helps small businesses in Latin America create AI agents that execute secure financial transactions and operation tasks. San Francisco-based Ocho aims to make car insurance policies more accessible, offering zero-interest financing to help policyholders cover upfront costs.
Collide’s broader portfolio includes more than 75 companies, including five exits. “Those successes showed that when we combine early-stage operational support with underrepresented perspectives, we unlock solutions that scale commercially and socially,” said Samuels.
Impact careers
Central to Collide’s strategy of building an ecosystem that rewards “relentless, tactical, generational founders” is finding aspiring entrepreneurs early, often in their undergraduate studies. Equally critical is cultivating the next generation of venture capitalists to evaluate those founders more fairly.
Collide’s second fund will expand Collide Campus, a training program the firm launched in 2022, which has provided 50 undergraduate engineering and MBA students with real experience identifying promising companies, deal sourcing and diligence and other investment training.
Two of Collide’s MBA fellows have joined the firm as full-time employees, with others joining other firms including BEA Venture Fund and General Catalyst. Some of Collide Campus’ participants come from Harvard Business School and Stanford University, where both Hollins and Samuels attended.
The new fund brings Collide’s total assets under management to more than $170 million.
