OkCupid co-founder Sam Yagan is not one to rest on his laurels. Less than three months after announcing that he’s bringing ShopRunner’s headquarters to Chicago, the serial entrepreneur raised $37 million for his venture capital firm Corazon Capital.
Corazon has previously raised $13 million.
“You'll see us writing bigger checks,” Yagan told Crain’s on Wednesday. “In our first fund, we'd do $150,000 to $250,000. Now it will be more like $250,000 to $500,000."
Yagan (pictured right) added that Corazon will be less focused on leading rounds than on being a go-to co-investor. Drawing in large part on Yagan’s experience scaling companies like OkCupid and SparkNotes, the firm sees its capacity for guiding entrepreneurs through rough spots and pivotal decisions as its biggest value add.
Co-founded by Yagan and fellow Techstars Chicago board member Steve Farsht in 2014, Corazon Capital’s portfolio companies include on-demand dry cleaning and laundry startup Dryv as well as Shiftgig, an on-demand workforce management platform that lets operators in industries like hospitality and experiential marketing beef up their staff on short notice. The latter made headlines just over two weeks ago when it acquired BookedOut, a Chicago competitor.
A Chicago native with degrees from Harvard and Stanford, Yagan’s resume includes a four-year stint as the CEO of Match Group. Yagan’s currently serves as Director of Tinder and SpotHero and Vice Chairman of The Match Group.
Images via Shutterstock and Sam Yagan.
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