Pritzker Group Venture Capital is one of the leading venture capital funds in the United States. The firm has backed more than 100 entrepreneurs throughout the United States. Over the last 4 years, PGVC’s companies have sold or gone public with more than $5 billion in enterprise value.

During a private breakfast for 80 family offices and venture firms, in a fireside chat with Esther Dyson, hosted by Alpha Venture Partners, J.B. Pritzker, co-founder and managing partner of Pritzker Group, explained a bit more about the firm’s investment strategy and themes it’s partners finds exciting.

“We have some areas we focus on and have been good at, “ He said. “We tend not to be bleeding edge investors. We would not invest in something that there is no identifiable market for, That might change the world, or no one will know it ever existed.“

Instead of focusing on certain themes, PGVC focus on companies that solve a problem in the market.

“We tend not to say:’ the world is moving to nanotechnology and therefore we should go all in in nanotechnology. What we tend to say is :’what pain are you alleviating and how deep is that pain?’“

The focus on having a clear pain and an identifiable market has led PGVC to stay away from product that are completely consumer focused, Pritzker said adding that if Twitter had came to them in the early days, they would probably not passed over the radar. In the enterprise space, the pains are clearer, and therefore it got historically got more attention from PGVC.

“In terms of where to put your money in the next 10 years, or 5 years or 3 years,” he explained in a response to a question, “If you look at where google is going, they are probably in the right areas. AI for example, artificial intelligence is upon us. We are not all using it yet. That is an area google is going into and trying to wear the big pants.”

in February, Pritzker groups was part of a $12.5 million B round in Viv, an AI technology built by the creator of Siri, together with Iconiq and Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures.

Watch the video

05 Themes Prizker Venture is Excited About from Alpha Venture Partners on Vimeo.