Business Blog: A VC VP

What you need to know about J.D. Vance’s VC career

July 16, 2024

J.D. Vance was a VC—is a VC?

I hedge here because, candidly, Vance's track record as a venture capitalist just doesn't strike me as all that deep—there's nothing wrong with it, to be sure. The tech resume for Donald Trump's newly named running mate looks something like this: After a spell in corporate law, Vance went on to work at Peter Thiel's Mithril Capital, and then moved to Steve Case's Revolution, before launching his own firm.

Vance's time at Thiel's Mithril Capital seems to have overlapped with a pivotal time in his life: In 2016, he published Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. The success of that book made Vance something of a brand name. And his gig at Revolution was connected to the firm's Rise of the Rest fund, which was focused on investing in startups in the heartland.

His stint at Rise of the Rest was unremarkable, according to a 2021 Business Insider article, which says he was not especially versed in the intricacies of deal terms or diligence, and quotes one investor saying, "I don’t recall anyone at Rise of the Rest bragging about something J.D. Vance brought to the fund."

Still, after a couple of years, Vance launched his own fund, Narya Capital, and raised $93 million from big names like Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Eric Schmidt. (Narya, if you're wondering, is another one of those J.R.R. Tolkien references.)

Narya's been doing deals, as recently as this year. Per Crunchbase, Vance's firm invested in real estate assessment software company ValueBase in June, and the firm has done 19 deals to date. Other Narya portfolio companies include aerospace startup True Anomaly, insurtech Branch, and farmland-focused real estate investing company AcreTrader.

I haven't read Vance's Hillbilly book (a terrible inconvenience for me today, I must say) but as I was writing this I felt it was time to start. So, huddled in my hotel room at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech Conference, I bought the book on Kindle and started. (I probably wasn't the only one doing that today.)

Even from the first few pages, I can already see how this book became a bestseller—and how it was this book that made Vance's ascension from hanger-on VC to presidential running mate possible. The very first lines of Hillbilly Elegy read:

"My name is J.D. Vance, and I think I should start with a confession: I find the existence of the book you hold in your hands somewhat absurd. It says right there on the cover that it's a memoir, but I'm thirty-one years old, and I'll be the first to admit that I've accomplished nothing great in my life, certainly nothing that would justify a complete stranger paying money to read about it."

He goes on to be clear that he's "not a senator, a governor, or a former cabinet secretary." Well, he's now a senator, thanks in part to Thiel's support. And, depending on what happens in November, he could be the second in line for the presidency of the United States.

So, the venture business may have a man in the White House, a potential turn of events that will likely be celebrated in the industry (including, perhaps unsurprisingly, by Elon Musk) regardless of Vance's investing track record. And Vance, whatever happens in the elections, will have a nice postscript for Hillbilly Elegy.

Gee Wiz…Yesterday, I interviewed Wiz CEO and cofounder Assaf Rappaport and Thrive Capital's Philip Clark at Fortune Brainstorm Tech, about a day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Alphabet is looking at acquiring Wiz for $23 billion. And believe me, I attempted to get Rappaport to talk about it. If the old saying is "the door is closed, try a window," I tried many windows. But Rappaport and Clark did talk through how they're thinking about…an exit. Read more here.

See you tomorrow,

Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.

Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today's newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

- Huma, a London, U.K. and New York City-based patient engagement, monitoring, and clinical trial platform, raised $80 million in Series D funding from AstraZeneca, Hat Technology Fund 4 by HAT SGR, HV Fund by Hitachi Ventures, and others.

- 44.01, a London, U.K.-based developer of carbon mineralization technology, raised $37 million in Series A funding. Equinor Ventures led the round and was joined by Shorooq Partners, Air Liquide Venture Capital, Alumni Ventures, Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, Climate Investment, and others.

- Neuspera Medical, a San Jose, Calif.-based developer of a device designed to improve bladder control for those experiencing urinary urgency incontinence, raised $23 million in Series D funding. Vertex Ventures HC and Treo Ventures led the round and were joined by Action Potential Venture Capital, Windham Venture Partners, Olympus Innovation Ventures, and another investor.

- LegalFly, a London, U.K.-based legal AI workspace, raised more than €15 million ($16.4 million) in Series A funding. Notion Capital led the round and was joined by redalpine and Fortino Capital.

- Cubbit, a Bologna, Italy-based cloud storage platform, raised $12.5 million in new funding. LocalGlobe and ETF Partners led the round and were joined by Verve Ventures, 2100 Ventures, Hydra, Growth Engine, and others.

- Seven Starling, a Washington, D.C.-based virtual provider of women's behavioral health services, raised $10.9 million in Series A funding. RH Capital led the round and was joined by Pear VC, Expa, Magnify Ventures, Emerson Collective, and Inflect Health.

- Essentialist, a Mallorca, Spain-based digital luxury travel agency, raised $10 million in Series A funding. IRIS Ventures led the round.

- doinstruct, a Berlin, Germany-based training platform for frontline workers, raised €7.6 million ($8.3 million) in new funding. Creandum led the round and was joined by existing investors HTGF, D11Z, and others.

- Syntetica, a Paris, France-based nylon recycling company, raised €4.2 million ($4.6 million) in seed funding. EQT Ventures led the round and was joined by Volta Circle, Better Angle, Pareto Holdings, Athletico Ventures, and others.

- Presti, a Paris, France-based developer of AI-generated product photos, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Partech led the round and was joined by angel investors.

- Bima Labs, a San Mateo, Calif.-based developer of Bitcoin-backed stablecoins, raised $2.3 million in seed funding. Portal Ventures led the round and was joined by Draper Goren Blockchain, Sats Ventures, Luxor Technology, Delta Blockchain Fund, Halo Capital, and others.

Recommended Newsletter

Sign up for the CEO Daily newsletter

CEO Daily provides key context for the news leaders need to know from across the world of business. Every weekday morning, more than 125,000 readers trust CEO Daily for insights about-and from inside-the C-suite.

Subscribe now

PRIVATE EQUITY

- Cleartelligence, a portfolio company of Align Capital Partners, acquired Bardess Group, a Randolph, N.J.-based data and analytics firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Lumerity Capital acquired a majority stake in Ellit Groups, a Spring, Texas-based healthcare IT consulting group. Financial terms were not disclosed.

OTHER

- Fielmann Group acquired Shopko Optical, a network of optical retailers in the American upper Midwest. Financial terms were not disclosed.

IPOS

- Concentra, an Addison, Texas-based provider of occupational health services, plans to raise up to $585 million in an offering of 22.5 million shares priced between $23 and $26 on the New York Stock Exchange. The company posted $1.8 billion in revenue for the year ending March 31, 2024.

- OneStream, a Birmingham, Mich.-based enterprise finance platform, plans to raise up to $465.5 million in an offering of 24.5 million shares priced between $17 and $19 on the Nasdaq. The company posted $406 million in revenue for the year ending March 31, 2024. KKR, Midwest Fish Holdings, and Robert Powers back the company.

- Artiva Biotherapeutics, a San Diego, Calif.-based company developing natural killer cell-based therapies for patients with autoimmune diseases and cancers, plans to raise up to $139.2 million in an offering of 8.7 million shares priced between $14 and $16 on the Nasdaq. The company posted $33 million in funding for the year ending March 31, 2024. GC Corp, 5AM Ventures, venBio, and RA Capital back the company.