Dan Reed, managing director of American Family Ventures, is one of the leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2024 Powerlist.
Dan Reed founded American Family Ventures (AFV) more than a decade ago and serves as its managing director. The unit has grown from a single carrier investor to its current state of running several multi-LP funds for companies across the insurance sector.
The firm was initially launched as US-based insurance provider American Family’s strategic investment arm in 2013. It is an early-stage investor in and around the insurance industry, with a cheque size ranging from $250,000 to $10m. Since its launch, the team, now 26 strong, has made more than 200 investments in 89 portfolio companies, with 22 exits having returned capital.
In August of 2023, AFV announced the AFV Fund IV, its second multi-LP fund. Representing a twofold increase in terms of capital and limited partners from the previous fund, the $444m fund is backed by 25 companies in the insurance market. In a press release, Reed describes Fund IV as a “tool for moving LPs and startups forward into the next phase of the industry’s transformation.”
A notable recent investment for the team is Plantd, a carbon negative building material manufacturer, which raised a $10m series A funding round last year. Also included in Fund IV’s portfolio are: Ledgebrook, which provides tech and data to the speciality insurance industry; Limit, a digital wholesale insurance broker; and VQuip, a tailored insurance product and innovative risk management tool.
Reed, a former pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, has an undergraduate degree from Stanford University, as well as an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has worked as a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and in various strategic roles at American Family Insurance and has experience as a principal in two startup companies. He also previously worked as a hospital administration at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100
individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.
