Vermilion Cliffs Ventures, the firm founded in 2023 by operator-turned-investor Ashley Smith, has announced the close of a $25 million second fund to back early-stage technical founders. Smith runs the firm as one of the few solo women general partners in venture capital, and the new fund continues her thesis of investing in startups building in AI infrastructure, security and developer tools. The raise is notable both for its rapid timeline and for spotlighting the still-rare model of a woman operating as a solo GP.

Smith said it took around four months to raise Fund II, with much of the capital coming from existing investors. The fund will write cheques of between $500,000 and $1 million and aims to invest in at least 25 companies over the next two and a half years, having already backed six. Her debut $13 million fund backed 35 companies, including cybersecurity startup Keycard and AI infrastructure firm CopilotKit. Drawing on her marketing experience at Twilio, Facebook, GitHub and GitLab, Smith said she focuses on helping founders with go-to-market strategies for selling to developers and security teams.