How RedBlue Capital’s Olaf Sakkers is Defying the First-Time VC Fundraising Squeeze

First-time venture capital fund managers face their toughest fundraising climate in at least a decade, capturing just 4.5% of U.S. Firms raising their fourth fund or later seized 88.2% of total capital during the same period, according to PitchBook data cited by TechCrunch.

Only 81 first-time funds closed in the first nine months of the year, putting 2026 on track for the lowest tally in ten years. Olaf Sakkers has spent five years working against that market gravity. He founded RedBlue Capital in 2021 and closed an initial fund with roughly $5 million in capital commitments in 2023, according to [Longbridge].

Sakkers has now held a first close on a second fund that he projects will total at least $50 million, TechCrunch reported. That push comes as emerging managers battle institutional risk models built to avoid zeros.

Institutional limited partners like endowments and pension funds remain tough to win over because RedBlue writes small checks of $50,000 to $100,000, Sakkers told TechCrunch. Their risk models gravitate toward established brands that feel inevitable.

“It’s a long-term game of building trust, demonstrating performance over time,” Sakkers told TechCrunch.

Instead of leading deals, RedBlue joins syndicates led by others. The firm acts as the final investor on a cap table, promising practical help such as introductions to customers and lead investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital, TechCrunch reported.

Out of 28 investments made by the firm, 15 have been marked up, Sakkers said. He cites a net internal rate of return above 50%, though with only one exit via an acqui-hire, most gains are unrealized paper returns, according to TechCrunch.

Public records verify several early bets, including HappyRobot raising a $150 million Series C at a $1.2 billion valuation in August, and Westmag emerging with an $11 million seed round in June led by Andreessen Horowitz, [Newsbreak] reported. Flai secured a $27 million Series A in 2025, while Humble Robotics announced a $51 million Series A led by Obvious Ventures in October.

Sakkers runs the firm with a single full-time principal in New York, relying on thesis essays and a custom database built with Claude Code to handle logistics asynchronously, TechCrunch reported.

Smaller funds between $1 million and $10 million consistently outperform larger funds exceeding $100 million at the top end of net TVPI across recent vintage years tracked by Carta, according to TechCrunch.

“Life is short, and regrets last forever,” Sakkers told TechCrunch.