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Pitbull Ventures Closes $5M Venture Capital Fund To Support Promising AI-Enabled Vertical SAAS Startups During Funding Winter

- April 16, 2024

Pitbull Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, today is announcing the close of its $5M Fund I set to fuel the growth of pioneering startups. 

Pitbull Ventures is on a mission to take LA’s tech scene to new heights by betting on pre-seed AI-enabled vertical SaaS startups with promising early traction and guiding them toward the next stages of growth with the support of the fund’s expert team. 

Pitbull Ventures is a pre-seed fund focused on AI-enabled industry-vertical SaaS startups, preferring to bet on founding teams that are leveraging AI and have demonstrated early product market fit. The team has invested across a variety of SaaS industries, giving the fund a much broader reach, with its portfolio including everything from FinOps to IT distribution services to restaurant tech.

LA is now the third-largest startup market in the United States and, with nearly 4,000 venture-backed startups, the area more affectionally known as “Silicon Beach” is quickly catching up to the established tech scenes in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York. 

The entry of Pitbull Ventures onto the LA scene marks an important step forward for early-stage SaaS founders seeking funding during the biggest downturn in venture capital activity for five years

To date, the fund has backed 15 vertical SaaS early-stage startups.  LA-based investor and entrepreneur Brad Zions has been an active early-stage investor for the past 25 years, both as a partner at Structure Fund and individually, before founding Pitbull Ventures in 2021. 

Big winners in his vertical SaaS portfolio include Harri, VidMob, and Embrace  Recent exits include Podsights, Jukin Media, and Donut Media. Previous exits include QXL (IPO) and Google via Ron Conway’s Angel Funds I and II. 

Zions has deep domain expertise in the hospitality, apparel, and entertainment industries. 

Pitbull Ventures is a pre-seed fund based in Los Angeles, California founded by serial entrepreneur and investor Brad Zions. Zions has been an active early-stage investor for the past 25 years, both as a partner at Structure Fund and individually.

Featured photo of venture capitalist Brad Zions