Olaf Sakkers founded RedBlue Capital in 2021 and closed its first fund with roughly $5 million in 2023. He has now held a first close on a second fund that will total at least $50 million, navigating a brutal environment for emerging managers.
Through the first three quarters of this year, established firms raising their fourth fund or later captured 88.2% of U.S. VC fundraising dollars, while first-time funds captured 4.5%. Just 81 first-time funds closed in the first nine months of 2026, putting the year on track to be the worst for first-time managers in at least a decade according to PitchBook data.
Sakkers studied anthropology at Princeton and later moved to Israel, where he was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces with a desk job liaising with the U.S. military. An introduction there led to Michael Granoff, founder of venture firm Maniv Mobility. Granoff hired him on the spot, and they built a fund together, learning as they went. Sakkers ran the investment process day to day, backing Israeli founders in cybersecurity and automotive technology before expanding to the U.S.
By 2021, Sakkers says he was an equal partner in Maniv's economics but wanted something more formal and scalable, so he struck out on his own. RedBlue backs what he calls the "real economy," including robotics, logistics, manufacturing and energy.
RedBlue writes small checks of $50,000 to $100,000, mostly joining deals led by other investors rather than leading them. The firm promises practical help including introductions to lead investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital, and to customers.
Of RedBlue's 28 investments, Sakkers says 15 have been marked up, with a net internal rate of return of "significantly above 50%." There has been just one exit, an acqui-hire. HappyRobot, a RedBlue-backed company, raised a $150 million Series C at a $1.2 billion valuation in August. Westmag raised an $11 million seed led by Andreessen Horowitz in June. Flai followed its 2025 seed with a $27 million Series A. Humble Robotics announced a $51 million Series A led by Obvious Ventures earlier this month.
Sakkers cites discipline as his edge. RedBlue publishes thesis essays and runs on a custom database built with Claude Code to log relationships, meeting notes and introductions. That lets him and his lone full-time principal in New York work asynchronously. He contrasts RedBlue's approach with Benchmark's model, which he says suits a firm with an established record.
Smaller venture capital funds between $1 million and $10 million consistently outperform larger funds of $100 million or more at the top end of net TVPI across recent vintages tracked by Carta, according to data cited in the report.