W25 Orange Fund

Please keep this information confidential. Not endorsed by or affiliated with YC.

Led by YC alumni and investors Sara Du and Matt Lenhard, the W25 Orange Fund aims to invest in the top 10-25% of companies in the first Y Combinator Winter 25 batch.

Y Combinator (YC) is the most prestigious startup accelerator in the world. It has funded 4,000+ companies, including Airbnb, Stripe, Cruise, DoorDash, Coinbase, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, Reddit, and Twitch. YC interviews and selects four batches of companies per year and has a 1.5-2% acceptance rate.

The combined valuation of all YC companies nears $600B, including 90+ companies worth $1B+, and 16 public.

Typically only well-connected investors can invest in what they believe could be "the next Airbnb" — in fact, industry insiders line up weeks before the batch ends to secure an allocation in these hot companies.

Demo Day invitations are limited even for established VC investors, and the most promising startups close rounds before Demo Day.

The fund managers of the W25 Orange Fund are YC Alumni and have access to batch information and companies before other investors do. Sara and Matt will vet companies and invest the fund into the top quartile of startups.

LPs in the fund will get access to multiple deals across different industries of the Y Combinator Winter 25 batch.

The Fund Managers

Sara Du is the Founder & CEO of Alloy Automation (YC W20), backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital. Sara is a former investment scout for Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock. Thiel Fellow and Harvard dropout, Sara serves as Principal at Insiders Fund. Sara invested in Clipdrop (acq by Stability), Vesta (Series A by a16z), Spline.com ($15M raised by First Round), Archive.com (Series A by Stripe).

Matt Lenhard is a 2x founder and YC alum: LendEDU (W16) was acquired, and Positional (S21) is still active. Matt is an angel investor in tens of YC and non-YC startups. Matt invested in companies like Explo (Series A led by Craft), Brev (acquired by NVIDIA), and Detail (Seed led by Conviction). Matt has served as fund manager in the F24 Orange Fund.

12 Unicorns

Wefunder has a long history of raising YC batch funds since 2014. We’ve invested in 12 unicorns to date all from seed round.

Rappi: Consumer tech company that specializes in providing online delivery services.

Checkr: Automates and speeds up the process of professional background checks.

Ginkgo Bioworks: Developer of biological engineering products and custom microbes across multiple markets.

EquipmentShare: Equipment and digital solutions provider serving the construction industry to help contractors accelerate productivity.

Ironclad: Contract lifecycle management platform used by companies to handle every type of contract workflow.

GrubMarket: GrubMarket is a technology enabler and digital transformer of American food supply chain industry.

Mux: Video platform designed to make video streaming and analytics possible for every development team.

Apollo: Market sales platform that helps accelerate the growth of an organization.

Astranis: Space startup that builds small and low-cost telecommunications satellites to provide internet access in remote regions.

Mashgin: Software company that makes AI and computer vision checkout systems.

ShipBob: Global logistics company that offers an e-commerce fulfillment order platform for direct-to-consumer brands.

Teleport: Provides infrastructure services such as connectivity, authentication, authorization, and audit into a single platform.

Our Orange Funds have higher returns than the top quarter of VC firms

Getting Into Deals

One of the key advantages of investing in the F24 Orange Fund is our team's connection and reputation within Y Combinator, giving us excellent access to investments.

1. Sara and Matt are serial founders. They all have been through YC’s program and have been investing in YC startups for years.
2. Wefunder is a YC alum (W13). We have also hosted 120+ raises for YC companies on the platform.
3. YC founders love us as investors. Wefunder has an "A" rating on YC’s Bookface (their internal knowledge base), with a total of 120+ investments. Our last three YC funds had 100% “A” ratings from YC founders with 102 investments.
4. Optimal fund size. We keep our funds at around $1M per manager to ensure full deployment in the target batch while maintaining the highest quality of companies. Our last three funds were both oversubscribed in two weeks.

Evaluation and Investment Process

YC receives around 20,000 applications per batch and chooses approximately 200 companies (~1% acceptance rate compared to Harvard's 4%). From those 200 companies, we select 20-40 for our fund.

Sara and Matt will invest across multiple industries, including generative AI, fintech, healthcare, consumer, enterprise analytics, security, and infrastructure. The anticipated check sizes will be between $25K-$100K with a total of 20-40 investments, depending on the final fund size.

Sara and Matt will begin identifying companies and making investments well in advance of Demo Day, to secure allocations early and take advantage of favorable pre-Demo Day terms.

Sara and Matt will attempt to identify the best companies in the batch. They will make decisions to maximize the long-term value of the fund, and to provide the best returns possible for investors.

Co-Investors

We often invest before tier 1 VCs. Top VCs have invested $5B+ of follow-on capital into our portfolio

The Last Few Funds

In the W23, S23, W24, and S24 Orange Fund, we invested in 143 companies and we were invited to YC’s in-person reception at the new YC office in the Dogpatch in San Francisco.

By being part of YC's top investors, and one of the most active investors in the last two batches with more than 70 investments, we’re able to access deals that most others can't.

We co-invested alongside some great firms, such as Initialized Capital, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Google Ventures, Alt Capital, and some cases before them. For example, Khosla Ventures led the round of one of our portfolio companies a month after we invested, and so did Initialized Capital.

W23, S23, W24, S24 were all oversubscribed and 2 weeks. Unfortunately, we need to limit the fund size to ~$3M in order to maintain high returns for this type of fund.

Key Terms and Fund Admin

• Admin. The fund will be administered by the Wefunder team.
• Funds. The W25 Orange Fund will be managed by Sara Du and Matt Lenhard
• Reporting. We will provide LPs with regular performance updates on our investments.
• Distributions. Distributions to LPs happen following each individual liquidity event.
• Fees. The fund charges 20% carried interest and a yearly management fee of 1%.
• Minimum Investment: $5,000.

As part of W25 Orange Fund, you will have access to pro rata and subsequent allocations within its portfolio companies, allowing you to double down on the winners.

Where to Invest

Join the W25 Orange Fund and looking forward to working together.

FAQ

Who manages the fund?

Wefunder's fully-owned subsidiary, Capitalize Advisors LLC, manages the fund. Capitalize Advisors is an exempt reporting investment advisor. Wefunder has the authority to replace or dismiss hired advisors and principals.

How many investors are allowed in the fund?

Only 249 investors are allowed in the fund.

Can you accept international investors?

Yes, we can accept investments from anywhere, besides sanctioned countries. Sanctioned countries include Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and the Donetsk, Crimea, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.

Do you accept non-accredited investors?

Only accredited investors are allowed to invest, accreditation is self-verified.

Are there capital calls?

No, all funds are fully called upfront

Can I invest within my IRA?

Yes. You can read more about it here.

Can I see a preview of the fund’s investment contracts?

Subscription Agreement, Limited Partnership Agreement. The fund docs are drafted by Wilson Sonsini.

I have more questions.

Feel free to email Mattia at mattia@wefunder.com.

1. Net investor IRR after fees and carry. Marked as of December 2023, to latest valuation paid by an investor. Unaudited. Realized and Unrealized.
2. Total Value to Paid In Capital. Marked as of December 2023. Unaudited. Realized and Unrealized.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. There is no guarantee that any fund will achieve the same exposure to, or quality of, startups held by any existing fund. We do not provide investment advice to investors and no communication, through this website or in any other medium, should be construed as a recommendation for any security. All data reported as of 12/01/23, net of fees and carry, for YC funds more than 2 years old.