Yonder Fund I: $4.64M to Back Marketplace Founders Building New Economies

Yonder is an early-stage fund led by Colin Gardiner that invests in marketplaces that build new economies.

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I started Yonder to fill a gap: there’s no first-check/pre-seed fund built specifically by and for marketplace operators. And now there is…

I’m excited to announce that I raised $4.64 million for Yonder Fund I. 🎉 

I feel incredibly fortunate to be backed by 91 world-class founders, operators, and investors from platforms that built online commerce as we know it.

I am even more excited to share that Venture Capital Journal covered the news today, and I wanted to share the story with this community, as you’ve been part of this journey from the beginning, and I am very grateful for that. 🙏

Now I need to ask one little favor…

Help me spread the word:

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Building a Firm, Not Just a Fund

When I announced the Yonder Fund last summer, I had a $2M fund and aimed to reach $3.2M to invest in 50 companies. The response was better than expected, and I raised more than 2.3X my initial fund size and grew AUM to over $7.2M. As with all things, a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck brought it all together, but it was clear to me that the story, thesis, and strategy all resonated deeply.

Closing the first fund is the first major milestone in building a firm that becomes the go-to for founders starting early-stage marketplaces and network-effect businesses. It is a big vision, and I believe Yonder can become the first name people think of when they start a marketplace. Building the brand is important, but, as in any marketplace, creating a strong network effect is critical to its success, and that means having great LPs alongside me.

“I’m an LP in 70 funds, Colin is in the top 5. Operators hearts with an investor’s mind.” - Jack Greco Co-Founder of ACV Auctions

Yonder’s real value lies beyond its capital and in the 91 LPs behind it. Our investor base is world-class and includes founders, operators, and investors from Airbnb, Uber, DoorDash, Amazon, eBay, Grubhub/Seamless, Thumbtack, StubHub, StockX, Whatnot, Mercari, OLX, OpenTable, Zillow, Trulia, ApartmentList, ACV Auctions, Reverb, Facebook Marketplace, Snapchat, Stripe, Pinterest, RetailMeNot, Turo, Outdoorsy, Peerspace, Avail, Rematter, and many more.

I also recently added Jack Greco, Co-Founder of ACV Auctions, as an advisor on the investment committee. He also happened to be my first check! For those who don't know Jack's story, he is an incredibly kind and giving person who is also a tremendous marketplace operator and investor and brings a lot of expertise to the table:

• Co-founded the used wholesale car marketplace ACV Auctions ($3.9B IPO), helping take it from 3 founders in Buffalo to IPO on the Nasdaq.

• Made 200+ angel investments in marketplace companies.

• Early investor in TCGPlayer (Pokemon marketplace), which sold to eBay ($295M), as well as Roofstock (single-family rental marketplace).

• LP in 70 funds.

• A huge Buffalo Bills fan.

The foundation is laid, the flywheel is spinning, and I am building the firm I wish existed when I was building.

Putting Chips On The Table

Yonder Fund I was built to invest early in marketplaces that build new economies. After scaling Outdoorsy to $3B+ in GMV and working with 100+ marketplaces, I kept seeing the same problem:

Exceptional marketplace founders couldn’t find investors who understood their business model at the earliest stages.

The most defensible marketplaces don’t just connect buyers and sellers; they wrap the core platform with SaaS tools, financial products, and managed services that embed deeply with customers, increase switching costs and liquidity, and enhance defensibility. I call this the Marketplace+ model, and it is the core of the fund’s thesis. The future is also AI, and AI-native marketplaces are being built as we speak.

The fund is business-model-specific but industry- and sector-agnostic with investments across AI agents, robots, derivatives, construction, childcare, fuel, gold, legal, healthcare, and more. I have already invested in 22 companies with a less than 2% acceptance rate from 1,000+ on-thesis deals. Given the larger fund size, I am expanding the portfolio to up to 70 companies to maintain diversification and invest in as many great opportunities as we can.

If you’re building a marketplace, I want to meet you: I’m writing $50-100K checks at first-check and pre-seed. Let’s create the next generation of marketplaces together! Apply here and then email me at colin@yonder.vc.

If you are interested in being an LP in the future, lets build a relationshiop and please reach out to me at colin@yonder.vc or submit your interest here.

I am incredibly excited about how the portfolio is shaping up and look forward to sharing more soon as more companies come out of stealth. Stay tuned and sign up below to get notified!

Going Forward

With the fund closed (meaning I am not taking new capital for Fund I), the focus is narrow for now: supporting our portfolio and finding the next wave of marketplace founders building new economies (and to be honest, always fundraising!).

I am deeply grateful for the 5,000 Take Rate readers who’ve built this community, to the 91 LPs who believed in the vision, to the founders who trusted me with their first institutional check. I would be nothing without you! 🙏

Special thanks to my wife and family for their support.

To Jack Greco for convincing me to do this and for being my first check.

To Sydecar for being a steady partner in the background, which makes running a fund so much easier for emerging managers.

If you want to receive quarterly updates on Yonder, please subscribe below.👇

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About Me:

Colin is a marketplace geek and the General Partner of Yonder, a pre-seed marketplace fund that invests in marketplaces that create new economies. He has also been a longtime advisor to marketplaces, helping them with product growth, monetization, liquidity optimization, and strategy. Previously, he served as the CPO/CRO at Outdoorsy and has worked at Tripping.com, Ancestry.com, JustAnswer, and the Federal Reserve.

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