Lagos-based early-stage investment platform Microtraction has launched a bid to source more deals and identify “high-trajectory” founders.

It started as First Round Capital’s experiment. After all, founder Josh Kopelman had started his first company, Infonautics, while he was a student at the University of Pennsylvania. Partner Hayley Barna had started Birchbox while still at Harvard Business School.

Spearhead announced today that it has raised $100 million for its fourth fund. The basic outline of the program remains the same, but what’s changed is what happens after the formal Spearhead program has finished.

Venture Capital firms, like Sequoia Capital, have been using a secretive network of so-called “scouts” to funnel money to promising start ups while avoiding the publicity that an investment from a big-name VC firm can bring, according to a report Friday in the Wall Street Journal.

The article confirms that Spain has a number of scouts working for top Silicon Valley and European funds (Sequoia, Accel, EQT, Index, etc.), though many keep a low profile

A feature on Monk’s Hill Ventures’ new Scouts Program in Southeast Asia.

It takes a village to grow a startup, so Village Global is offering access to a deep network of top tech execs to lure founders to its seed fund. Today, Village Global announced it’s raised $100 million for that fund that was first unveiled in September.