Two former social media executives have been working on moving from the boardroom to fintech.
Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and ex-COO Adam Bain teamed up to launch a consulting and investment firm, called 01 Advisors, and are quickly raising venture capital for future investments. The inaugural fund, called 01 Advisors 01, secured $134.7 million this week and is aiming for a total of $200 million,
The duo has been active in venture capital investing since departing the social media giant. After leaving Twitter in 2015, Costolo joined the investment firm Index Ventures as a partner. Bain also left Twitter in 2015 and invested in companies like Reddit, Tonal and Lyric, according to LinkedIn.
A spokeswoman for 01 Advisors declined to comment.
Former Twitter investor relations executive David Rivinus is also a partner at 01 Advisors, according to a LinkedIn profile, although he is not listed in the SEC filings.
Costolo and Bain wouldn't be the first prominent executives to make the jump to the venture space. Former LPL CEO Mark Casady and his business partner David Blundin invested $5 million in Vestigo Ventures, a fund that invests in wealth management startups, especially those focused on blockchain and big data.
Vestigo, which closed at $60 million in 2018, has invested in a handful of companies so far, including LifeYield, Digital Assets Data and Vestmark, according to company data.
While it is not immediately clear which sectors the 01 Advisor fund will focus on, it will certainly enter a crowded marketplace. Venture capital funding for fintechs got off to a
