Yonder Fund I is an operator-led, early-stage venture capital fund focused exclusively on marketplaces. Founded by Colin Gardiner, a seasoned marketplace operator and former Chief Revenue Officer at Outdoorsy, the fund was created to address a gap in the ecosystem: the lack of a first-check, pre-seed fund built specifically by and for marketplace founders. Yonder is rooted in deep operational experience and aims to be the earliest and most value-aligned investor in marketplace startups creating entirely new economies.
Yonder Fund I targets pre-seed and first-check investments in marketplace startups, with a strong belief in the ongoing power of marketplaces to generate outsized outcomes. The fund seeks founders who are leveraging AI, automation, and community to unlock new forms of aggregation, liquidity, and trust.
Yonder is particularly interested in emerging models where intelligent agents do the heavy lifting in matching, discovery, and fulfillment.
In August 2025, Colin Gardiner officially launched Yonder Fund I after quietly operating a fully subscribed proof-of-concept fund over the past three years. While the total size of Yonder Fund I was not disclosed in the announcement, Gardiner revealed he has already deployed $4.5 million in AUM across 36 investments, using small, conviction-based checks ranging from $50,000 to $200,000.
Yonder's early portfolio has shown strong momentum: two-thirds of companies have raised follow-on rounds, many alongside top-tier firms like Founders Fund, Seven Seven Six, Norwest, Lerer Hippeau, Precursor Ventures, Hustle Fund, and others.
Leadership
Yonder Fund I is led by Colin Gardiner, a veteran marketplace operator and advisor. Before founding Yonder, he helped scale Outdoorsy to over $3 billion in gross revenue, raised more than $200 million across startups, and worked with 50+ marketplaces. He also founded Take Rate, a leading newsletter in the marketplace space. Gardiner is widely recognized as a thought leader in the marketplace and operator-VC ecosystem.
Investment Strategy
Yonder writes early, high-conviction checks at the pre-seed stage, typically the first institutional capital into a startup. The fund emphasizes deep collaboration with founders, leveraging Colin’s operating expertise in growth, liquidity design, pricing, and marketplace dynamics. Yonder is also thesis-driven: it bets on “new economy” marketplaces where AI and automation reshape traditional supply-demand models. The fund’s strategy blends access to elite marketplace talent with agile check writing and rapid support, aiming to help founders get from zero to traction faster.
Notable Investments
Notable early investments from Yonder Fund I include:
Additionally, 14 companies in the Yonder portfolio have raised rounds involving well-known VCs including:
Notable Exits
As a newly announced fund focused on pre-seed deals, Yonder Fund I has not yet recorded any exits. However, several portfolio companies are on high-growth trajectories and are progressing through successive funding rounds.
