Firm overview
Founded in 2021 by Virginie Raphael, FullCircle is a pre-seed investment firm focused on closing the alignment gap between founders and funders. Previously, Virginie was managing director and an early employee at Tusk Ventures, where she spent eight years advising and investing in early-stage founders operating in highly regulated industries. Earlier in her career, Virginie worked in investment banking at Lehman Brothers/Barclays. Operating as a solo general partner, Virginie invests in companies that are creating the structural changes required to build a better workforce.
Virginie is also the co-founder of Transact Global, alongside Heather Hartnett of Human Ventures (another investment we are proud to have in our portfolio), Soraya Darabi and Marina Hadjipateras of TMV, and Alexia Bonatsos of Dream Machine VC. Transact Global is the fastest-growing community of emerging fund managers in the world. Additionally, Virginie serves as treasurer of La French Tech, which supports a large network of brilliant French entrepreneurs who have had success in the U.S. over the past few years and yet remain under the radar.
Firm strategy
FullCircle invests in pre-seed companies building technologies serving the needs of working caregivers, deskless workers in traditionally low-tech industries, and independent workers. What really impressed us about Virginie is her operational expertise. While many new fund managers have investment experience, few have mastered the operational elements of managing a fund. Virginie is adept at both. She believes that fund admin impacts performance if not done well. (We strongly share this belief at Carta, which is why we launched an entire business to ensure VCs have high quality fund administration.)
FullCircle is structured as a perpetual fund model, not a traditional ten-year, closed-end venture capital fund. From the start, we could see that Virginie embraces unconventional approaches, which we value. The perpetual model is a single fund vehicle with a single portfolio. Virginie uses this structure because it creates alignment between her LPs and her founders. Unlike a traditional fund structure, which has a four- to five-year investment period followed by a harvest period, the perpetual model eliminates the need for rushed capital deployment and exits. In the traditional model, GPs raise successive funds, which can mean that managers may drift from their strategy and original fund size. Virginie intends to consistently execute on a collaborative pre-seed investing strategy, which is reflected in her fund structure. We appreciate the experience and conviction it takes to develop a non-traditional venture fund model.
Why we invested
We invested in FullCircle because we believe in Virginie’s unique fund model, as well as her depth of experience as an investor and fund operator. Virginie’s focus on aligning founders and limited partners immediately impressed our team.
We admire those who master their craft. We believe people develop expertise by understanding the details of everything they do. While many new GPs can hone a sharp investment thesis, it is often more challenging to succeed in the details of fund budgeting, fund administration, and limited partner management. We have been impressed with how Virginie has mastered the craft of fund management and investment.
Beyond her fund, Virginie has joined together with others to build Transact Global, which supports diverse emerging managers and helps to ensure that more women manage institutional capital. We believe that being helpful and community-minded in the competitive venture capital industry is not only the right strategy, it is the most competitive strategy.