Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund

David Hall is the managing partner leading day-to-day investment activity. The fund operates under Revolution's broader leadership, with chairman and CEO Steve Case engaged in strategic direction and ecosystem-building. Prior to his departure for public office, J.D. Vance was a managing partner involved in sourcing and managing portfolio companies.

The fund sources opportunities through its deep network of regional ecosystem partners, including university tech-transfer offices, local accelerators, and economic development agencies in non-coastal cities. The multi-city Rise of the Rest bus tours provide on-the-ground access to founders and community leaders in often-overlooked markets. This approach generates pipeline that coastal-only funds typically miss.

Rise of the Rest is a dedicated venture capital vehicle within Revolution, an investment firm. While Revolution manages Steve Case's capital alongside institutional funds, Rise of the Rest operates with formal fund structures, raised external capital, and functions as a conventional seed-stage venture fund rather than a single-family office direct investing arm.

Rise of the Rest Seed Fund exclusively makes direct equity investments into operating companies. It does not operate as a fund-of-funds and does not publicly participate in LP commitments to other venture managers. The strategy is built entirely around primary, seed-stage company ownership.

The fund targets seed-stage rounds, often serving as the first institutional capital into a company. This can include pre-seed, seed, and occasionally early Series A rounds in geographies outside the traditional venture hubs. The vehicle looks to lead or co-lead rounds to secure meaningful ownership positions in nascent regional startups.

While the fund has backed a broad spectrum of technology-enabled businesses, it notably does not invest in Silicon Valley-based companies by mandate design. Beyond that geographic screen, there are no publicly stated sector exclusions, though historical deal flow suggests a preference for enterprise and applied technologies over consumer social or speculative crypto plays.

Rise of the Rest sits inside Revolution, the investment platform Case founded in 2005 alongside Tige Savage. Revolution also operates a growth-stage fund, Revolution Growth, and a later-stage vehicle, Revolution Ventures. The Rise of the Rest Seed Fund is the earliest-stage component of this multi-strategy platform, and portfolio companies can graduate into growth capital from its sister funds.