Lerer Ventures Raises Second $25M Seed Fund for NYC Startups

As we kickoff of our second annual TechCrunch Disrupt conference, we're clearly not the only ones who think there's a substantive ecosystem brewing here beneath all the hype and the froth; Lerer Ventures is announcing the closing of its second seed-stage venture fund today. The total is $25 million, mostly from friends, families and small family investment groups. The fund comes 18 months after Ken Lerer , Huffington Post co-founder, and his son Ben Lerer , Thrillist co-founder, decided to organize all the one-off angel investing they'd been doing around the New York scene into their first formal fund. They raised $8.5 million back then on the hunch that New York needed its own uber-tapped in "Ron Conway of the East." Nearly two years later with a portfolio that includes GroupMe, Greplin, Hyperpublic, and last year's Disrupt winner Qwiki, they think they've proven it. There's another big announcement with the new fund: Eric Hippeau , formerly the CEO of the Huffington Post, is joining the firm full time to run it.