RedBlue Capital Closes Second Fund as First-Time VCs Struggle

Olaf Sakkers has held a first close on a second venture fund for his firm RedBlue Capital, which he says will total at least $50 million, according to TechCrunch. The close comes in a year PitchBook data, as cited by TechCrunch, shows is on pace to be the worst in at least a decade for first-time fund managers trying to raise venture capital.

How hard is it to raise a first-time VC fund right now?

Firms raising their fourth fund "or later" captured 88.2% of U.S. venture capital fundraising dollars through the first three quarters of 2026, according to PitchBook data cited by TechCrunch. First-time funds, by contrast, captured just 4.5% of those dollars. Only 81 first-time funds closed in the same nine-month period, a pace PitchBook estimates puts 2026 on track to be the weakest year for new managers in at least ten years, per the TechCrunch report.

Fundraising by fund number, through Q3 2026

• Fourth fund or later: 88.2% of U.S. VC dollars raised
• First-time funds: 4.5% of U.S. VC dollars raised
• First-time funds closed: 81, the slowest nine-month pace in at least a decade, per PitchBook's estimate as reported by TechCrunch

That concentration means limited partners, the institutions and individuals who supply capital to venture funds, are directing the overwhelming share of new money toward managers with long track records rather than newcomers.

Who is Olaf Sakkers and how did RedBlue Capital start?

Sakkers was raised in South Africa and studied anthropology at Princeton, where he wrote his thesis on HIV in his home country, TechCrunch reports. After graduating, he moved to Israel and was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, where he held what he describes as a desk job liaising with the U.S. military and developed an interest in autonomous vehicles.

An introduction connected him to Michael Granoff, founder of venture firm Maniv Mobility and an early backer of electric-vehicle startup Better Place. Granoff hired him on the spot, Sakkers tells TechCrunch. Neither man had previously worked as a venture investor, so, in Sakkers's words, they built the fund "almost by accident," learning the business as they went. Sakkers says he ran the day-to-day investment process at Maniv, backing Israeli founders applying cybersecurity expertise to the automotive sector before expanding into the U.S. and other markets. By 2021, he had become an equal partner in Maniv's economics, according to the TechCrunch account, but he wanted to build something "more formal and scalable" and left to start RedBlue Capital that same year.

RedBlue closed its first fund with roughly $5 million in capital commitments in 2023, TechCrunch reports.

What does RedBlue Capital invest in?

Sakkers describes RedBlue's focus as the "real economy" — robotics, logistics, manufacturing and energy — and says the firm writes small checks, according to TechCrunch. The first fund functioned as a proof of concept backed largely by limited partners Sakkers already knew, including family offices. The second fund draws on both family offices and institutional investors, the report says.

Why are institutional investors the hardest group to win over?

Sakkers tells TechCrunch that institutional limited partners — endowments and pension funds — have been the toughest group to persuade, for two reasons. First, RedBlue's checks are small relative to what those institutions typically commit. Second, institutional risk models are built to "avoid getting a zero," in Sakkers's phrase, which pushes them toward established brand-name firms rather than first-time managers.

Sakkers draws a comparison to repeat startup founders, who he says come to be seen as "inevitable" once they've built one company before, while first-time founders — like first-time fund managers — contend with what he calls the "gravity of perception," in which a more dominant brand bends how observers judge a newer, unproven one.

How is RedBlue trying to overcome that perception gap?

Sakkers's stated approach is to let results accumulate over time rather than rely on pedigree or marketing. "It's a long-term game of building trust, demonstrating performance over time," he tells TechCrunch. The firm's trajectory so far reflects that incrementalism: a $5 million debut fund in 2023 followed, roughly three years later, by a first close on a fund Sakkers says will reach at least $50 million — a tenfold increase in committed capital even as the broader first-time-fund market, per PitchBook's figures, shrinks to its smallest share of U.S. venture dollars in at least a decade.

Whether that pattern holds for RedBlue's eventual final close, or for other emerging managers watching the same PitchBook numbers, is not addressed in the available reporting.