The CED’s Tech Venture Conference, known for the platform it provides to entrepreneurs to pitch their business to investors, turned the idea on its head this year and offered Investor Reverse Pitches.
In the first Investor Reverse Pitch session on Tuesday, OCA Ventures, Osage Venture Partners, the Steve Case founded Revolution, SJF Ventures, and Vocap Investment Partners presented brief outlines of the stages, sectors, strategy and typical amounts of their investments.
Here’s a breakdown:
- OCA Ventures
Chicago-based OCA Ventures, which invested in Triangle-based Wedpics and Automated Insights, typically invests in early stage companies. About 25 percent of its investments are in seed stage firms; 60 percent in A rounds; and 15 percent in B rounds.
It generally invests from $1 million to $2 million in technology companies, including healthcare IT and financial services.
Website: http://www.ocaventures.com
- Osage Venture Partners
Osage Venture Partners, based in Philadelphia and Princeton, NJ, invests in early stage B2B software, which it defines broadly. It recently closed a $90 million fund.
It looks for post-revenue companies and its main fund invests from $1 million to $4 million in A rounds. It was a lead investor in the Triangle-based Automated Insights B round prior to its acquisition.
Osage’s Edge seed fund invests from $200,000 to $400,000 in earlier stage companies.
It focuses on the East Coast from Boston to Atlanta. Managing Partner David Drahms said he would love to hear from Triangle startups with B2B products.
Website: http://osagepartners.com/osage-ventures-partners
- Osage University Partners
Osage University Partners invests in university spinouts. It invests in all stages and sectors from a $215 million fund.
It tracks 4,000 university spinouts across the country. It looks for spinouts with intellectual property or deep involvement with professors, grad students or post docs.
The fund invested in spinouts from Duke and North Carolina State University.
- Revolution
Created by AOL founder Steve Case, Revolution has invested in Zipcar and Living Social.
It has a $200 million fund early stage fund that typically invests from $1 million to $2 million in a deal and a later stage $550 million growth fund.
In early stage deals, it looks for startups with $3 million to $5 million in revenue.
The fund tends to “Get really involved and some of our entrepreneurs call us personal trainers,” a partner said.
- SJF Ventures
Durham-based SJF Ventures, which also has offices in San Francisco, New York, and Seattle, invests from $3 to $8 million from its $125 million fourth fund. It makes smaller early stage investment.
It looks for companies with ‘significant revenue.”
It invested in Durham-based TransLoc, which helps more than 200 municipalities and universities manage bus transit operations, and in Valdic, a market leader in optimizing results from mobile data such as fitness trackers.
Website: http://sjfventures.com/contact-us/
- Vocap Investment Partners
Vocap, headquartered in Atlanta, is an early stage fund that invests primarily on the East Coast.
It looks for experienced entrepreneurs with “A track record of operational success,” and teams with “Strong domain expertise.”
Website: http://vocappartners.com/#page-1
