Vice Ventures

Vice Ventures is a Brooklyn, New York-based early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2018 by sole General Partner Catharine Dockery to systematically invest in 'good companies operating in superficially bad industries,' verticals that mainstream institutional capital tends to avoid because of social stigma, regulatory complexity or moral panic. Dockery built the firm after time on Walmart's retail M&A team focused on digitally-native vertical brands, with earlier experience in equity trading and high-yield credit research. The investable universe explicitly includes alcohol and beverages, cannabis, harm-reducing nicotine, psychedelics including legitimate clinical-stage MDMA and ketamine therapeutics, sex tech and sexual wellness, skill-based and sports betting, and emerging vices. Vice Ventures closed its $25M Fund I in 2019 and the firm's $25M Fund II soon after, while preserving a small, founder-aligned operating model with a single GP, and it generally invests as a co-investor. Across approximately 14 to 15 investments to date Vice Ventures has built a portfolio that includes CBD beverage brand Recess, alternative-nicotine pouch brand Black Buffalo, harm-reducing inhalation platform Qnovia, its most recent disclosed investment in Qnovia's Series B on November 12, 2024, and direct-to-consumer intimates and women's wellness brand Parade, which became Vice's highest-profile exit when it was acquired on August 15, 2023. The fund primarily participates in Seed rounds in US-based companies. By deliberately backing strong companies in stigmatized but large categories, Vice Ventures pursues returns in markets that conventional investors overlook.