This SV Angel Is Going Solo With A $45 Million Venture Fund

ByPhoebe Liu,

Forbes Staff.

H

enry Kwan was scrolling on LinkedIn at around 7 p.m. on a Tuesday evening last month when he saw a message from investor Beth Turner asking for a meeting. By close of business the following day, Turner had written a $250,000 check to Kwan’s El Segundo, California-based autonomous drone startup Icarus. A couple of weeks later, the company closed its first major funding round, in large part thanks to Turner’s guidance and introductions to other investors. “She was really, really able to help drive this fundraising momentum and close it really fast,” Kwan says. “It’s more than capital.”

Moving fast, investing with conviction and making important introductions are key components of Turner’s playbook. It’s part of why the former managing partner at early-stage venture capital firm SV Angel thinks spinning out on her own will allow her to create a lasting, “generational” VC company. On Thursday, Turner announced the launch of Valkyrie, her solo $45 million fund that aims to invest in AI applications, AI infrastructure and critical industries (like nuclear energy or the electric grid) via early-stage checks like the one she wrote Icarus. The fund closed in May after just five weeks of fundraising and includes capital from SV Angel founder Ron Conway, billionaire Block cofounder Jack Dorsey, billionaire investor Marc Andreessen and VMware cofounder Diane Greene.