Vermilion Cliffs Ventures Closes $25M Fund II for Technical Founders
TL;DR
Vermilion Cliffs Ventures, the solo-GP firm founded in 2023 by operator-turned-investor Ashley Smith, has closed a $25M Fund II to keep backing technical founders building in AI infrastructure, security, and developer tooling. The fund is nearly double the $13M debut, was raised in about four months largely from returning investors, and is anchored by LGT Capital Partners, Screendoor, and GEM. The differentiator is not capital but distribution: Smith's edge is helping founders sell to developers and security teams, a go-to-market discipline she learned across Twilio, GitHub, GitLab, Parse, and Facebook.
Key Takeaways
A clean step-up that signals franchise durability. Going from a $13M Fund I to a $25M Fund II is a ~92% increase, and Smith says roughly 95% of Fund I LPs re-upped. In a brutal 2026 fundraising market for emerging managers, a four-month raise built mostly on returning investors is about the strongest validation a solo GP can show.
Screendoor as an anchor is the tell. Screendoor exists specifically to back the next generation of standout emerging managers, so its presence alongside LGT Capital Partners and GEM is an institutional stamp that this is a franchise, not a one-fund experiment. A tight roster of just 15 LPs keeps the base aligned and low-maintenance.
Go-to-market is the actual product. Most seed funds promise to help you raise the next round; Smith is selling something rarer and more concrete, help earning it by selling into developers and security teams. Her operator background across category-defining developer companies is a genuine, hard-to-replicate edge in exactly the segment she targets.
The solo GP is quietly institutionalizing. Fund II brings the firm's first teammate, Meghan Murphy, a technical go-to-market operator from the early days of Twilio. That is a meaningful signal: the value proposition is being built into the firm rather than resting entirely on one person's calendar.
Fund Overview
Fund Name: Vermilion Cliffs Ventures Fund II
Fund Size: $25M (up from a $13M debut fund)
Stage: Early stage (pre-seed / seed)
Check Size: $500K–$1M average
Geography: United States
Focus: Technical founders building for technical users in AI infrastructure, security, and developer tooling
Portfolio pace: Targeting 25+ companies over roughly two and a half years; six already backed
Key LPs: LGT Capital Partners, Screendoor, GEM (15 LPs total)
Why This Fund Matters
The seed market for AI infrastructure, developer tools, and security is arguably the most crowded corner of venture right now, with everyone from solo GPs to multi-billion-dollar platforms writing early checks. In that environment, a $25M fund cannot win on price, brand, or reserves. It has to win on a specific, defensible edge, and Vermilion Cliffs has one that is unusually well-matched to its thesis: distribution into technical buyers.
Selling to developers and security teams is its own discipline, and it is where most technical founders bleed time and money. They build excellent products and then discover that bottoms-up developer adoption, security procurement, and community-led growth follow rules that generic sales playbooks do not capture. Smith spent her operating career inside the companies that effectively wrote those rules, and she is packaging that pattern recognition as the core of the fund's value-add. For a founder choosing among a dozen willing seed checks, that is a rational reason to pick this one.
The raise itself is a market signal worth reading. Closing in roughly four months, nearly doubling fund size, and retaining about 95% of Fund I LPs at a moment when many emerging managers are stalling or shutting down suggests the model is resonating with both founders and LPs. Institutional anchors like LGT and an emerging-manager specialist like Screendoor do not re-underwrite a thesis they do not believe compounds.
There is also a broader story here about the maturation of the solo-GP model. The first wave of solo capitalists sold access and speed; the more durable second wave is selling a specific operating competency and then building a small team around it. Adding a technical go-to-market teammate in Fund II is exactly that move, and it is what separates a fund that can persist across vintages from a personal brand that fades when attention shifts.
The Team
Ashley Smith is the sole general partner and runs Vermilion Cliffs as one of the few solo women GPs in venture. She is an operator-turned-investor whose career was spent in go-to-market and marketing leadership across a lineup of developer- and infrastructure-defining companies, including Twilio, GitHub, GitLab, Parse, and Facebook. That is a rare pedigree for the exact segment she invests in, and it is the substance behind her pitch that she can help founders skip the expensive mistakes of learning technical GTM the hard way.
Fund II adds the firm's first teammate, Meghan Murphy, a technical go-to-market operator from the early days of Twilio. Murphy joins as a team member rather than as a second GP; the fund remains a solo-GP structure with Smith as the decision-maker. The addition matters less for headcount than for what it signals: the firm is building its differentiated GTM support into an institution rather than a single founder's bandwidth.
Early Portfolio
The $13M debut fund backed 35 companies, an intentionally high-velocity, broad-ownership strategy typical of the best small early-stage funds. Named investments include the cybersecurity startup Keycard and the AI infrastructure company CopilotKit, both squarely on-thesis. Fund II has already made six investments and plans to reach at least 25 companies over the next two and a half years at $500K–$1M per check, implying continued breadth rather than a concentrated book.
What This Means for Founders
If you are a technical founder building for developers or security teams and you are early enough to value hands-on go-to-market help over a big brand on your cap table, this is one of the more differentiated seed checks available. The value here is specific and operational: how to price and package for developer adoption, how to navigate security procurement, and how to build community-led growth. That is worth more at pre-seed and seed than most generic platform support, and it is exactly what Smith has done before.
Be realistic about what a $25M fund can and cannot do. Average checks of $500K to $1M mean this is an early lead-or-co-lead at the entry point, not a fund that can carry you through later rounds on its balance sheet, so pair it with investors who can. With a plan for 25-plus companies, expect meaningful hands-on help but a portfolio-wide time budget; the founders who extract the most will be those who come with specific GTM questions rather than expecting a full outsourced sales function.
Fund Momentum Take
We like this fund because it is honest about where its edge is and disciplined about staying inside it. Thesis, check size, GTM value-add, and the founder's operating history all point in the same direction, which is far more than can be said for the many generalist AI seed funds raised on little more than a hot category. The combination of a 95% LP re-up, a fast raise, and a Screendoor anchor is exactly the profile of an emerging manager that goes on to raise a Fund III and IV.
The risks are the structural ones every fund of this shape carries. Key-person concentration is real: a solo GP is the firm, and while adding a teammate helps, sourcing, decisions, and value-add still run through one person. The target segment is fiercely competitive and increasingly capital-heavy, so access to the very best deals against deeper-pocketed multistage funds is the perennial challenge, and a $25M fund has limited reserves to defend ownership when winners raise up. The velocity strategy of 25-plus companies also puts real pressure on how much hands-on GTM help each founder actually receives.
Our bet: this is a manager on the right trajectory. The edge is specific and durable, the LP base is loyal and institutional, and the discipline is evident. If Smith sustains ownership in even a couple of the AI-infrastructure and security winners from Funds I and II, Vermilion Cliffs becomes a fixture in technical seed investing rather than a passing solo-GP story. We would take the over on a Fund III.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big is Vermilion Cliffs Ventures Fund II?
The fund closed at $25M, nearly double the firm's $13M debut fund. It was raised in about four months, largely from returning investors, with a tight base of 15 LPs.
Who runs the fund?
Ashley Smith is the sole general partner. She founded Vermilion Cliffs in 2023 after an operating career in go-to-market and marketing roles at companies including Twilio, GitHub, GitLab, Parse, and Facebook, and is one of the few solo women GPs in venture. Fund II adds its first teammate, technical GTM operator Meghan Murphy.
What does the fund invest in?
Early-stage technical founders building for technical users in AI infrastructure, security, and developer tooling, with average checks of $500K to $1M and a plan to back at least 25 companies over roughly two and a half years.
Who are the LPs?
Fund II is anchored by LGT Capital Partners, Screendoor, and GEM, with about 95% of Fund I investors returning for the second fund.
What has the firm invested in so far?
The debut fund backed 35 companies, including cybersecurity startup Keycard and AI infrastructure company CopilotKit. Fund II has already made six investments.
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