JK&B Capital

David Kronfeld, the firm’s founder and chairman, oversees investment decisions. The firm describes a team-based approach to analysis and decision-making but does not publicly name additional investment committee members or partners. Kronfeld’s background includes venture leadership roles at Ameritech and Boston Capital Ventures before he started JK&B in 1996.

JK&B relies on the industry relationships of its partners, many of whom held senior management positions at large technology firms. The firm states that these former executive roles provide an “extensive network of industry contacts and proprietary relationships” that give portfolio companies access to potential customers, strategic partners, and financing sources. No formal sourcing platform or systematic origination program is publicly described.

JK&B Capital operates as a traditional venture capital firm that manages pooled third-party capital, not as a single-family office. It was founded as an independent partnership in 1996 and has raised multiple funds totaling over $1.1 billion in cumulative commitments. There is no indication that the firm manages a single family’s wealth or offers multi-family office services.

JK&B’s disclosed model is direct investing, with the firm typically acting as the lead investor in a funding round. The firm does not publicly state that it makes fund-of-fund commitments, allocates to outside managers, or operates a separate fund-of-funds program. Its emphasis on technical due diligence and board participation is consistent with a direct venture investing strategy.

Altss research indicates that JK&B targets early-stage, seed, start-up, and expansion or late-stage venture rounds. The firm’s website does not specify a minimum or maximum check size, but its generalist venture mandate allows it to invest across the lifecycle of a technology company within its three verticals: communications, IT, and healthcare.

JK&B does not publish a formal exclusion list. Its stated focus is software, IT, communications, and healthcare, which implies that it generally does not invest in sectors such as consumer packaged goods, traditional industrials, or hard-asset infrastructure. Without a negative sector disclosure, these boundaries are inferred from the firm’s investment mandate rather than explicit policy.

Unlike several Chicago peers that broadened into growth equity, credit, or multi-asset platforms, JK&B has remained a venture-only partnership concentrated in three technology verticals. Its single-founder governance structure and emphasis on technical domain expertise from former corporate executives differentiate it from larger partnerships that diversified their investment teams and product lines over the same period.