The Rest of the Story: The New $500 Million Fund Raised by Pelion Venture Partners is Utah's Largest VC Fund Ever

Additionally, Pelion currently has more than $1.5 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM), which for a venture capital firm focused on early stage investments (let alone one in the so-called "middle" of the U.S. within a state of only 3.5 million residents) is pretty dang impressive.

Sometimes the email gods conspire.

For example, by the time I uncovered yesterday morning's news release from Cottonwood Heights, Utah-based Pelion Venture Partners, the announcement that it had just closed a $500 million venture capital fund was already blowing-up all over social media.

And deservedly so.

So rather than simply re-state what had already been shared and re-shared all over the place about this news, I thought perhaps that I might share a few hopefully new and/or salient thoughts about yesterday's announcement and its implications, as well some observations about Pelion and venture capital investments in Utah.

Ten Politis Observations on Pelion and More

FIRST OF ALL: In case you missed it, yesterday Pelion announced that it has closed Pelion Fund VIII with a whopping total of $500 million in funding.

SECOND: By my calculations, Pelion Fund VIII is the largest venture capital fund ever closed by a Utah-based VC firm.

Please note that I am defining Pelion Fund VIII as a VC fund and not private equity.

THIRD: I think it's also important to note that Pelion currently has over $1.5 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM), as per its spokeswoman.

This may or may not be the largest VC-focused AUM total in Utah today; of that I am not sure.

But for Utah, that's a massively large amount.

FOURTH: Additionally, by my calculations, Pelion and its predecessor VC firm (Utah Ventures, launched back in 1986), collectively raised significantly more than $2 billion in funding monies over the years. Perhaps even approaching $3 billion.

FIFTH: Although Pelion announced the close of Fund VIII yesterday (28 January 2025), the firm has been actively investing out of Pelion Fund VIII since at least June 2024 when the firm invested in two firms:

• Salt Lake City, Utah-based Jump, and
• New York City-based Cartwheel.

SIXTH: Additionally, one of the other firms Pelion has invested since mid-2024 via Pelion Fund VIII is South Jordan, Utah-based Strider Technologies, which announced last September it had raised $55 million in a C Round of funding, with Pelion leading the investment round.

SEVENTH: What neither firm explained until some six weeks later, however, was that not only did Pelion take the lead role in funding Strider's C Round, Pelion also wrote its largest check ever to lead the round, one for $35 million, as prominently noted in our 07 November 2024 "Global Chaos" report.

EIGHTH: If Pelion and its Partner, Tyler Hogge, are correct in their claim within yesterday's formal announcement that Utah stands at the precipice of what it and he term as Wave V, an approaching technological tsunami of new inventions and societal shakeups, then look out.

The next decade (or shorter) could be mind-bending with its beneficial and far-reaching change.

NINTH: When I moved back to Utah in late 1987 and was invited to join the board of directors of the then-named MountainWest Venture Group (now known as the MountainWest Capital Network), few in Utah's business ecosystem even had an inkling of what venture capital was, let alone how or why to deploy it.

That said, clearly Jim Dreyfous understood, especially given his role as the founder/leader of Utah Ventures and later the Managing Partner of Pelion.

So did Brad Bertoch, long-time leader of the Salt Lake City-based nonprofit organization, Kinect Capital (known previously as VentureCapital.org and the Wayne Brown Institute).

So too did Ray Noorda, the long-time-gone CEO and former Chairman of Novell, who was for years the head of Novell Ventures and NFT Ventures (aka, Noorda Family Trust).

As a result, so too did Blake Modersitzki, who served from 1997 through 2002 as Vice President/Managing Director of Novell Ventures.

Yeah, that's the same Blake Modersitzki that's served as Managing Director or Managing Partner of Pelion Venture Partners for nearly 23 years.

TENTH: To be clear, half-a-freakin-billion-dollars dropped into a single venture fund, in Utah no less ... that's massive, especially when combined into a total of $1.5 billion in active early stage AUM!!!

And given that the expectation is that at least half of those monies (or more) will be deployed with Utah-based companies by Pelion, that suggests great opportunities for Utah's entrepreneurs and business ecosystem.

And ... Bonus Observation No. 11

ELEVENTH: Nevertheless, don't be confused.

Utah will NEVER be Silicon Valley or achieve its monstrously outsized outlays of VC dollars.

And it won't happen for a number of reasons which I might outline at a future date, some reasons historical and some cultural.

But that's okay.

In fact, it's actually even better than okay.

How 'bout we as citizens and acolytes of the State of Deseret simply focus on being who and what we are and achieving the best that we can possibly become.

Do that and success cannot help but follow.

In fact, to me it's clear that it already has.

Besides, having half-a-billi of newly available VC capital can't hurt, can it?!?!?!

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