Viridian Capital Partners
Note: Local Tech Wire’s daily venture/investment profile is written by Matthew Burns and Worth Civils. Named for the same shade of green that colors dollar bills, Viridian Capital Partners tries to bring in as much green as possible through investments in early-stage communications and software companies.
The Charlotte-based firm was founded three years ago by former Montgomery Securities investment bankers.
Viridian is small, with just $16 million under management, but managers say the size comes by choice since they prefer to limit the number of investments they make so they can spend more time working with each portfolio company. Investments are usually in the range of $250,000 to $2 million.
Geography plays no role in Viridian’s portfolio, with the firm backing companies from Utah to the Washington, D.C., area. Portfolio companies include webcasting software developer Reliacast, online brokerage Web Street and employee productivity software maker Verticore Technologies. Another member of its portfolio, wireless Internet provider Stick Networks, went bankrupt last fall.
Here’s the skinny:
Featured Firm: Viridian Capital Partners
Mailing address: 6100 Fairview Road, Suite 770, Charlotte, NC 28210
Phone number: (704) 556-1950
Web site: www.viridian.com (Under construction)
Management Team:
Jeffrey Sampson (Managing Partner)
Frank Bachinsky (Partner)
Focus of firm: Viridian invests in companies relating to the software, industrial technology and consumer products industries. Geography is not a barrier, as the Charlotte firm has invested in five companies all over the nation, from Utah to Texas to Virginia to Massachusetts.
Size of current fund: $10 million
Money under management: $16 million
Companies funded include:
Reliacast
Verticore Technologies
Stick Networks
MechVisual
LightWedge
How many new deals do you expect to fund in 2002: Two to three
In what size range: $250,000 to $2 million
Sweet Spot (types of deals, stage of the company): Early-stage, revenue or near-term revenue.
Most important attributes for companies seeking funding: The Three M’s: Management, Market and Model.
What differentiates you: Extremely selective process where partners limit their investment activity and board seats to devote time and resources to assisting entrepreneurs build strong companies. In addition, the limited partners of the fund include accomplished entrepreneurs and senior executives from the technology industry who actively assist the management teams of our portfolio companies.
Note: Previous profiles can be found by searching Venture Watch category, entering date parameters of Feb. 1 and today.
