Spark Labs Global Ventures

Frank Meehan had it all at Horizon Ventures—board seats at industry giants like Spotify, Siri, and Summly, plus involvement in Deep Mind's funding. But by the early 2010s, he felt the pull to build something of his own. "Horizon's is a family firm and there comes a time when you decide that you are going to go and do it yourself," he explained. He wanted ownership and the ability to create and build brands from scratch, not just advise from the sidelines.

In 2014, Frank and five co-founders launched Spark Labs Global Ventures, a geographically distributed VC firm with offices in San Francisco, Korea, Singapore, Tel Aviv, and London. The bet was bold: instead of being "a whole group of people sitting in one location, having to fly out and fly back in again," they'd be "really an interconnected network" able to spot and move on hot deals within hours. They raised a $30 million fund to prove the thesis.

Their pitch to limited partners was straightforward—not promises of IRR, but access to deal flow. "We are a group of people who are incredibly well connected and that we can see the hottest company within 10 hours of it landing on our desk because we're in all of the key locations." The LPs bought in, and by early 2016, they'd deployed roughly half their fund across 52 companies with average checks of $250-500K, primarily in late seed and early Series A rounds. They positioned themselves as bridges between US and Asian markets, leveraging the talent, loyalty, and valuation advantages of Asia—where a SaaS company with $1M ARR could command 30-50x multiples.

Spark Labs became the biggest accelerator in Korea, drawing 2,500+ people to demo days. They built a complementary product, smartup.io—a platform for early-stage entrepreneurs with quizzes, simulations, and knowledge tools. The app was selected by Apple as "App of the Month" in June 2015. Their network-first model worked: they syndicated with Google Ventures, NEA, and SV Angels on US deals, and partnered with Sequoia and Tiger Global on Asian plays. Frank's board experience from Spotify—particularly learning how to manage boards proactively with pre-meeting slides and individual conversations—became a competitive advantage they brought to portfolio companies.

By early 2016, Spark Labs had become a true multi-geography platform. With 52 portfolio companies and 55+ in the accelerator program, they'd proven that distributed networks could outcompete centralized VCs on deal flow speed. Their thesis on Asia valuations and talent was validated. Frank remained hands-on, accessible via email and social media, while the firm continued to bridge worlds—helping US tech go east and Asian ventures go west.