ARK Make investments Enterprise Fund has made its first-ever lead funding in an early-stage startup referred to as Lucra, agency founder Cathie Woods informed TechCrunch.
“We really feel fairly enthusiastic about it,” Woods (pictured above) mentioned within the current interview relating to the funding within the startup.
Lucra developed a software program platform that reimagines company loyalty applications into interactive, eSports-like occasions akin to tournaments the place prospects can play one another, even betting or profitable money or firm giveaways. The startup mentioned its prospects embrace 5 Iron Golf, Chess Kings, and Dave & Busters.
Lucra introduced on Wednesday that it raised a $20 million Collection B, led by the ARK fund, with participation from Alumni Ventures, Astralis Capital, Harlo Fairness Companions, Simplex Ventures, SeventySix Capital, and WTI.
There are a number of the reason why the famed monetary firm has by no means led a startup deal earlier than. For one, the ARK Make investments Enterprise Fund shouldn’t be a typical VC fund. It’s an SEC-regulated interval fund (also called a closed-end mutual fund), which means anybody can spend money on it, for as little as $500. Nonetheless, it isn’t traded on a public alternate, so buyers can’t promote shares at will. They will promote restricted shares on particular dates, quarterly.
Woods additionally famous that the individual operating the fund, director of analysis Nick Grous, “is a troublesome promote,” leaving startups with the tough process of getting him excited sufficient to advocate to steer a deal.
What’s even wilder is that ARK was notably gunshy, about this form of enterprise as a result of it bought burned after investing in a considerably related firm a number of years in the past.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco, CA
|
October 13-15, 2026
“We had really owned an organization referred to as Skillz, which sort of operated on this area,” Grous mentioned. “It didn’t work out properly for us and lots of different buyers.”
Skillz was a as soon as sizzling public firm that later turned mired in troubles and lawsuits. The large distinction, the investor mentioned, is that Lucra is a B2B platform, promoting interactive eSports as a loyalty program, somewhat than attempting to license and run video games on to customers.
“Overcoming our preliminary hurdle, particularly given our expertise with Skillz, overcoming our reticence, having Nick overcome it, that was our first display,” Woods mentioned of how this startup satisfied her firm to jot down an enormous test.
On this case, ARK Make investments had participated in Lucra’s earlier Collection A spherical, and had grown accustomed to its enterprise mannequin, its trajectory, and its founder and CEO Dylan Robbins, Grous informed TechCrunch.
“We had been in fixed communication,” Grous mentioned, including that his venture-esq fund makes an attempt to have quarterly convention calls with the startups within the portfolio, much like how public corporations report back to buyers quarterly. ARK largely works within the public market, providing a slate of publicly traded EFT funds.
ARK Make investments Nick GrousPicture Credit:ARK Make investments
Regardless of already being within the portfolio, Lucra’s founder was grilled quite a few instances when it got here time to purchase extra shares — first by Grous after which ARK’s funding committee, each he and Woods described.
Throughout these calls, Robbins “had thought of all of the issues that went incorrect” with related corporations like Skillz, in addition to with Lucra, and had solutions, Woods mentioned. “Irrespective of what number of instances we went at him, his conviction, there was simply no let up,” she described.
It additionally helped that this firm’s financials had been promising, it was in an space that ARK knew properly, and this was not AI, aka probably the most hyped, costliest space nowadays.
“We’ve been underwriting the sports-betting area, understanding the gamification points of leisure,” Grous mentioned, which means that the funding agency might “actually perceive the chance right here.”
The ARK Make investments Enterprise Fund holds shares of corporations like Epic Video games, Kalshi, Discord, as an example. It additionally holds OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, Grok and Perplexity, so it is aware of the AI scene properly.
“We’re throughout AI, identical to everybody else, as a result of it’s a large revolution,” Woods defined. “However within the course of, plenty of corporations are being uncared for.” Which means recognizing such probably uncared for corporations is “our alternative as a result of we’re doing analysis in lots of different areas than AI,” she mentioned.
If you buy by hyperlinks in our articles, we could earn a small fee. This doesn’t have an effect on our editorial independence.
