NEW YORK (Diya TV) —PruVen Capital, a San Francisco-based venture fund led by former Battery Ventures and Citi Ventures executive Ramneek Gupta, has closed its second fund, raising $378.5 million to invest in financial services and enterprise startups. This new fund broadens PruVen’s scope beyond its original backer, Prudential Financial, to include multiple financial and insurance firms such as TIAA, Lincoln Financial, Generali, Nippon Life, Mutual of Omaha, and Willis Towers Watson.
What sets PruVen Capital apart is its access to top global insurance companies—not just as potential first customers but also as partners providing LPs with early insights into emerging technologies. Gupta reflects on his own experiences as an entrepreneur, emphasizing how much securing that first reference customer can enhance credibility and accelerate a startup’s growth. This approach proved successful at Citi Ventures, where over half of their portfolio companies achieved commercial outcomes with Citi directly due to their investments.
With Fund I largely deployed, PruVen will begin investing from Fund II later this month. According to Gupta, PruVen offers unmatched opportunities for startups to scale, with LPs being real businesses with established revenues.
Gupta’s experience and philosophy have been shaped by his entrepreneurial journey, including his time at Zappedy, which was acquired by Groupon in 2011. After helping build Citi Ventures and investing in successful companies such as Square, Jet.com, and DocuSign, Gupta left in 2020 to establish PruVen Capital as an independent firm. His first fund, launched four years ago, invested in companies like Bilt Rewards, Newfront Insurance, and Pismo, which Visa bought for $1 billion this year.
Although it is still too early to calculate returns for Fund I, Gupta says the early results are promising, with a 10% distributed to paid-in capital (DPI). “We already have money returned to our LPs, signaling that our model works,” he adds.
This new fund will continue to support innovative startups while leveraging its network of financial and insurance partners to drive mutual growth and success.
