CrunchFund

CRUNCHFUND - Description and Overview

INVESTOR TYPE	Venture Capital

CrunchFund is an early stage venture capital firm founded in 2011 by Michael Arrington, the founder and editor of TechCrunch, and Patrick Gallagher who formerly worked at Vantage Point Venture Partners. The Crunchfund's inaugural fund of $20 million was established to invest in information technology companies at any stage with a primary focus on seed and early stage investments.

The firm's first fund was raised in September of 2011. Investors in the CrunchFund are reported to include AOL, Accel Partners, Austin Ventures, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital, the individual founding partners of Andreessen Horowitz, as well as the general partners of Benchmark Capital, Ron Conway of SV Angel, Yuri Milner of DST and Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.

The fund's beginning in September 2011 was shrouded in controversy given the associations between Michael Arrington, TechCrunch and AOL. There was significant commentary at the time of the launch that suggested that the editorial independence of TechCrunch and hence AOL, its parent, would be compromised if they are investing in companies which TechCrunch covers.

Michael Arrington formerly invested individually as an angel investor in companies. Arrington's past investments as an angel investor can be seen in the investor profile under his name - Michael Arrington.