Web Summit co-founder branches out with new investment fund

The leaders of venture capital fund Amaranthine, in which Web Summit was an investor, are branching out into a new $50 million fund.

The men behind the Semble Fund II are Web Summit co-founder David Kelly and Patrick Murphy. The two men remain listed with the US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as the only managers of the fund for Amaranthine Partners I, LLC.

Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave said in a tweet last week that Mr Kelly and Mr Murphy had "stepped away" from Amaranthine to pursue other interests, and that Amaranthine was looking forward "backing more great companies".

The website for Amaranthine now directs people to Semble.vc, a web page that states: “Amaranthine is now Semble”, although there is very limited information available at the site.

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Web Summit retains the use of the name Amaranthine. A spokeswoman for the company said it was unaware of the new fund.

Technical

It is expected that the new fund will begin investing later this year, targeting technical and repeat founders across the EU and US. The Amaranthine fund invested in a range of companies, including online events company Hopin, which has been valued at $5.6 billon, and retail technology company Standard Cognition, now valued at more than $1 billion. It has also invested in Irish start-up Quorum Chat.

Mr Kelly, who co-founded Web Summit with Paddy Cosgrave and Daire Hickey, stepped away from the board of the popular tech conference a few weeks ago to focus on the investment fund. Prior to Amaranthine, Mr Murphy ran a venture capital fund for Universal Music Group. He was also an investment banker with Goldman Sachs.

The Semble team also includes Dublin-based investor Luke Byrne and Audrey Miller in San Francisco.

The new fund will be independent of Web Summit, which invested $2 million in Amaranthine Fund I. Mr Cosgrave is not believed to have invested in the new Semble Fund II.