Editor’s note: Back on Feb. 11, Local Tech Wire launched its daily feature profiling venture capital and investment terms. Thus far, Matthew Burns, Worth Civils and Daniel Pearson have compiled 88 of them. With today’s profile, the series as a daily feature concludes. LTW will now run profiles on an occasional basis.Mix together one real estate mogul with deep pockets and a technology-savvy administrator and you get the formula for Encina Technology Ventures, which focuses on angel and early-stage investments in companies near its home base in Atlanta area.

Encina is a partnership between Tom Cousins, founder and chairman of Cousins Properties, which built much of downtown Atlanta, and William Todd, the founding president of the Georgia Research Alliance, a strategic effort by the state’s six research universities, state government and the business community to leverage research capabilities into economic growth.

The firm is extremely low-key despite its high-profile leadership: It doesn’t have a website to tout its successes or investment philosophy and rarely looks at unsolicited investment queries, choosing to limit its activity to deals brought to it by trusted associates. Its portfolio includes semiconductor maker RF Solutions, software developer Ardext Technologies and bioinformatics venture NuTek Sciences.

Here’s the skinny:

Featured Firm: Encina Technology Ventures, LLC

Mailing address: 3445 Peachtree Road, Suite 175, Atlanta, GA 30326

Phone number: (404) 233-3415

Web site: None

Management team:

William J. Todd, President and CEO

Focus of firm: Early-stage investments in Georgia technology companies.

Size of current fund: Not applicable

Money under management: Undisclosed

Representative companies funded:

Ardext Technologies
NuTek Sciences
RF Solutions

Number of deals expected to be completed in 2002: Undetermined

In what size range: Undisclosed

Sweet spot (types of deals, stage of company): Seed funding or first institutional round.

Most important attributes for companies seeking funding: Experienced management team, breakthrough technology, Georgia base.

What differentiates you: The depth of knowledge of the firm’s management in technology transfer and commercialization, connections with Georgia’s tech community and a funding source that eliminates the need to raise new capital.

Note: Previous profiles can be found by going to Search, selecting Venture Watch, and setting date parameters between Feb. 11 and today.