Soul Street Ventures today announced it closed its debut fund at $22.5 million to invest in early-stage B2B technology, SaaS and fintech companies. The new fund will do traditional venture capital deals, but the firm also plans to pursue private equity and private credit strategies.
“We operate between Main Street and Wall Street,” firm co-founder and managing partner Prasanth Chilukuri tells Venture Capital Journal. “Main Street is guys who have really great ideas and want to build a company, but they don’t teach you in college and business school how to really do that, and Wall Street, of course, is everything we see on TV. So we found that this name [Soul Street] was suited for something right in the middle.”
The fund plans to back eight to 12 companies to allow it to “truly be a partner rather than just an investor,” Chilukuri says.
It has already completed seven investments and a few follow-on rounds in its best performing companies. Representative investments from its portfolio include leading the $4.59 million Series A round of outdoor activities booking platform Mallard Bay in March last year, participating in the $3.47 million early-stage round of baseball training platform developer The Futures App in August last year and participating in the $3.86 million early-stage round of loan servicing automation platform developer Sirvatus in January.
Soul Street declined to share the terms of its debut fund or name any LPs, but says that it was raised from family offices and high-net-worth individuals, many of whom previously backed Chilukuri’s former company, automotive software developer Tekmetric. Chilukuri co-founded and led the start-up, first as chief financial officer and later as chief executive officer, before transitioning to a board role in 2021.
Following his exit from Tekmetric, Chilukuri teamed up with Scott Adams in 2023 to launch Soul Street. Adams previously founded and continues to serve as CEO of Bay Worx Laboratories, which offers robotic-enabled rail fleet cleaning and maintenance. Prior to that, he worked as a director at UBS Investment Bank, a managing director at The Berry Companies and as a venture partner at Golden Section and Lewis & Clark Ventures, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Chilukuri and Adams originally named their firm Soul Venture Partners, but they decided to expand beyond VC to include private equity and private credit strategies following discussions with LPs.
“[Our LPs] told us they had an interest in new products and new offerings,” Chilukuri explains. “They liked our fundamentals and our thesis, and asked us to apply that same philosophy to things outside of venture, so we created Soul Street Asset Management. Soul Street Ventures is one leg of that, Soul Street Private Credit and Soul Street Private Equity [will be] the others. Rather than just being a venture shop, we see ourselves as a mini KKR or a mini-Blackrock, bringing the same philosophy to each of these investing principles.”
Soul Street will focus purely on seed and Series A investments in early-stage companies with its debut fund, and is in the planning stage for its first private equity fund, though no formal arrangements have been made.
Soul of an operator
Chilukuri says that his background as a founder and operator helped form the thesis for Soul Street, relating a story that when his company raised its Series A round, many of his employees asked how things would change now that institutional capital was in play.
“[The employees] expected a loss of the spirit and culture we built that company with, [and] culture was my key driver to get everybody aligned,” Chilukuri explains. “I used the phrase ‘scale with soul’ a lot at the company and that word is what translated into Soul Street Ventures. I wanted to take that same tenacity and thought process and bring it into a fund.”
He adds that his background eased LPs concerns about the risk of venture investing and has helped his firm win deals, saying “family offices really resonated with the thesis even though they know the risk profile.” He adds, “A lot of the founders have been approached by the big firms on the coasts and little old Soul won because of having a founder background.”
Perhaps the most telling aspect of how Chilukuri’s thesis differs from most other venture firms is his analogy to parenthood when talking about his portfolio.
“I’ve got two kids and my job is to teach them good nutrition, how to stay physically fit, be a good human being, be respectful, be responsible, be kind, be honest, and I can do that,” he tells Venture Capital Journal. “But if I have 10-plus kids, there’s no way I can spend that time with all of them. These funds that invest in 50 to 100 companies, they’re waiting for that moonshot. There’s that assumption that most are going to fail and that’s like saying most of your kids are going to fail, and I just refuse to do that.
“Each kid, sorry, each portfolio company, has a different requirement, so I sync up with each company weekly, not just the quarterly board meetings,” he adds. “All of that goes back to having a soul and being able to be a true partner for our companies.”
Soul Street Ventures today announced it closed its debut fund at $22.5 million to invest in early-stage B2B technology, SaaS and fintech companies. The new fund will do traditional venture capital deals, but the firm also plans to pursue private equity and private credit strategies.
“We operate between Main Street and Wall Street,” firm co-founder and managing partner Prasanth Chilukuri tells Venture Capital Journal. “Main Street is guys who have really great ideas and want to build a company, but they don’t teach you in college and business school how to really do that, and Wall Street, of course, is everything we see on TV. So we found that this name [Soul Street] was suited for something right in the middle.”
The fund plans to back eight to 12 companies to allow it to “truly be a partner rather than just an investor,” Chilukuri says.
It has already completed seven investments and a few follow-on rounds in its best performing companies. Representative investments from its portfolio include leading the $4.59 million Series A round of outdoor activities booking platform Mallard Bay in March last year, participating in the $3.47 million early-stage round of baseball training platform developer The Futures App in August last year and participating in the $3.86 million early-stage round of loan servicing automation platform developer Sirvatus in January.
Soul Street declined to share the terms of its debut fund or name any LPs, but says that it was raised from family offices and high-net-worth individuals, many of whom previously backed Chilukuri’s former company, automotive software developer Tekmetric. Chilukuri co-founded and led the start-up, first as chief financial officer and later as chief executive officer, before transitioning to a board role in 2021.
Following his exit from Tekmetric, Chilukuri teamed up with Scott Adams in 2023 to launch Soul Street. Adams previously founded and continues to serve as CEO of Bay Worx Laboratories, which offers robotic-enabled rail fleet cleaning and maintenance. Prior to that, he worked as a director at UBS Investment Bank, a managing director at The Berry Companies and as a venture partner at Golden Section and Lewis & Clark Ventures, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Chilukuri and Adams originally named their firm Soul Venture Partners, but they decided to expand beyond VC to include private equity and private credit strategies following discussions with LPs.
“[Our LPs] told us they had an interest in new products and new offerings,” Chilukuri explains. “They liked our fundamentals and our thesis, and asked us to apply that same philosophy to things outside of venture, so we created Soul Street Asset Management. Soul Street Ventures is one leg of that, Soul Street Private Credit and Soul Street Private Equity [will be] the others. Rather than just being a venture shop, we see ourselves as a mini KKR or a mini-Blackrock, bringing the same philosophy to each of these investing principles.”
Soul Street will focus purely on seed and Series A investments in early-stage companies with its debut fund, and is in the planning stage for its first private equity fund, though no formal arrangements have been made.
Soul of an operator
Chilukuri says that his background as a founder and operator helped form the thesis for Soul Street, relating a story that when his company raised its Series A round, many of his employees asked how things would change now that institutional capital was in play.
“[The employees] expected a loss of the spirit and culture we built that company with, [and] culture was my key driver to get everybody aligned,” Chilukuri explains. “I used the phrase ‘scale with soul’ a lot at the company and that word is what translated into Soul Street Ventures. I wanted to take that same tenacity and thought process and bring it into a fund.”
He adds that his background eased LPs concerns about the risk of venture investing and has helped his firm win deals, saying “family offices really resonated with the thesis even though they know the risk profile.” He adds, “A lot of the founders have been approached by the big firms on the coasts and little old Soul won because of having a founder background.”
Perhaps the most telling aspect of how Chilukuri’s thesis differs from most other venture firms is his analogy to parenthood when talking about his portfolio.
“I’ve got two kids and my job is to teach them good nutrition, how to stay physically fit, be a good human being, be respectful, be responsible, be kind, be honest, and I can do that,” he tells Venture Capital Journal. “But if I have 10-plus kids, there’s no way I can spend that time with all of them. These funds that invest in 50 to 100 companies, they’re waiting for that moonshot. There’s that assumption that most are going to fail and that’s like saying most of your kids are going to fail, and I just refuse to do that.
“Each kid, sorry, each portfolio company, has a different requirement, so I sync up with each company weekly, not just the quarterly board meetings,” he adds. “All of that goes back to having a soul and being able to be a true partner for our companies.”
