THE RISE OF DIGITAL FUNDRAISING: WHY COLD OUTREACH IS THE NEW WARM INTRO

For years, venture capital fundraising has been driven by one thing: relationships.

You knew someone, who knew someone, who maybe wrote you a $500K check after three meetings, three referrals, and three months.

But in 2025, the game is shifting.

Emerging managers and solo GPs can no longer afford to rely exclusively on warm intros. Not because relationships don’t matter — they absolutely do — but because the relationship-based funnel is slow, limited, and mostly offline.

Smart funds are now building outbound fundraising systems — and using the internet to raise capital the same way startups raise customers.

Here’s why cold outreach, done right, is no longer desperate… it’s elite.

1. The Warm Intro Bottleneck

Let’s face it: your network has limits.

You might have 30–50 “maybe” LPs in your circle. But they:

• Already deployed this quarter

• Don’t invest in first-time funds

• Only back managers they’ve known for 5+ years

• Want to see traction first

If you’re relying on the same founder-to-VC-to-LP loop, you’re tapping the same 1% of capital again and again — and leaving the other 99% untouched.

Reality check: warm intros are great. But they’re not scalable.

And if you don’t control the top of your fundraising funnel, you don’t control your raise.

2. Cold Outreach Works — When It’s Targeted

“Cold email” gets a bad rap because most people do it badly. Spammy. Generic. Poorly timed.

But modern outbound fundraising is a different beast.

With the right targeting, copy, and systems in place, it becomes one of the most powerful ways to:

• Build brand awareness with LPs you’d never meet organically

• Create leverage and optionality in your raise

• Book real conversations with aligned capital

At Infria, our clients consistently get replies like:

“Not a fit for us — but love what you’re doing. Keep in touch.”

“We’d be open to co-investment or syndication in future.”

“Can you send over the deck?”

Even “no” becomes future deal flow.

3. Digital Fundraising Creates Data and Momentum

What happens when your raise is purely relationship-based?

You have no data. No benchmarks. No pipeline to improve.

When you run structured outreach, you know:

• Which types of LPs are opening your emails

• Which teaser decks resonate best

• What your conversion rate is from email → call → allocation

• Where you’re losing interest — and how to fix it

Fundraising becomes a learnable, repeatable system — not just a chaotic flurry of Zooms.

More importantly: the momentum is visible. LPs can sense that others are engaging. Scarcity becomes real.

4. Control Your Raise, Don’t Beg for It

The old model: hope your network shows up.

The new model: build a repeatable LP engine that grows every quarter.

With tools like Instantly, Clay, and LinkedIn automations, we help GPs reach 500–1,000 qualified LPs in just a few weeks. Add in tight messaging and a clear process, and suddenly, capital isn’t something you chase — it’s something you attract.

TL;DR: Cold Outreach Isn’t Desperate. It’s Disciplined.

The best funds today are raising online, outbound, and on their terms.

And they’re doing it with structure, not spray-and-pray.

If you’re a fund looking to raise from aligned LPs outside your existing network — and you want to control the process from top to bottom — we can help.