Cathie Woods’ ARK makes its first lead investment in startup Lucra — and it isn’t AI

ARK Invest Venture Fund has made its first-ever pb concern successful an early-stage startup called Lucra, steadfast laminitis Cathie Woods told TechCrunch.

“We consciousness beauteous excited astir it,” Woods (pictured above) said successful the caller interrogation regarding the concern successful the startup.

Lucra developed a bundle level that reimagines firm loyalty programs into interactive, eSports-like events specified arsenic tournaments wherever customers tin play each other, adjacent betting oregon winning currency oregon institution giveaways. The startup said its customers see Five Iron Golf, Chess Kings, and Dave & Busters.

Lucra announced connected Wednesday that it raised a $20 cardinal Series B, led by the ARK fund, with information from Alumni Ventures, Astralis Capital, Harlo Equity Partners, Simplex Ventures, SeventySix Capital, and WTI.

There are a fewer reasons wherefore the famed fiscal institution has ne'er led a startup woody before. For one, the ARK Invest Venture Fund is not a emblematic VC fund. It’s an SEC-regulated interval money (also known arsenic a closed-end communal fund), meaning anyone tin put successful it, for arsenic small arsenic $500. However, it is not traded connected a nationalist exchange, truthful investors cannot merchantability shares astatine will. They tin merchantability constricted shares connected circumstantial dates, quarterly.

Woods besides noted that the idiosyncratic moving the fund, manager of probe Nick Grous, “is a pugnacious sell,” leaving startups with the hard task of getting him excited capable to advocator to pb a deal.

What’s adjacent wilder is that ARK was peculiarly gunshy, astir this benignant of concern due to the fact that it got burned aft investing successful a somewhat akin institution a fewer years ago.

“We had really owned a institution called Skillz, which benignant of operated successful this space,” Grous said. “It didn’t enactment retired good for america and galore different investors.”

Skillz was a erstwhile blistery nationalist institution that aboriginal became mired successful troubles and lawsuits. The large difference, the capitalist said, is that Lucra is simply a B2B platform, selling interactive eSports arsenic a loyalty program, alternatively than trying to licence and tally games straight to consumers.

“Overcoming our archetypal hurdle, particularly fixed our acquisition with Skillz, overcoming our reticence, having Nick flooded it, that was our archetypal screen,” Woods said of however this startup convinced her institution to constitute a large check.

In this case, ARK Invest had participated successful Lucra’s erstwhile Series A round, and had grown acquainted with its concern model, its trajectory, and its laminitis and CEO Dylan Robbins, Grous told TechCrunch.

“We had been successful changeless communication,” Grous said, adding that his venture-esq money attempts to person quarterly league calls with the startups successful the portfolio, akin to however nationalist companies study to investors quarterly. ARK mostly works successful the nationalist market, offering a slate of publically traded EFT funds.