Published
The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. has partnered with seven venture capital funds managers to invest $100m in 100 Virginia-based startup companies.
The partnership, announced by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, under the name Virginia Invests will commit $40,000,000 to the seven funds. This money was previously allocated by the U.S. Treasury Department State Small Business Credit Initiative. In December 2022 Youngkin’s Office announced that Virginia was approved for up $230 million under the SSBCI Program, with approximately $173 million going to VIPC.
Youngkin said that “the ability to tap into capital is the lifeline of a high growth entrepreneurial ecosystem,” and “that’s exactly what Virginia Invests does.” How can we accelerate growth? How can we multiply good ideas? How can we create opportunity by bringing people together who want to invest and those who need money to make this happen ?”
The funding firms have committed $60 million more and will select 100 high-growth startup companies to invest in over the next three to five year period. According to Youngkin, firms that are not headquartered within Virginia will be required to match the funds they receive by 1.5 times, while those headquartered within the state will match the funding 1:1.
“One of the most important steps, in my opinion, was to realize that picking companies isn’t something we should do,” said he. “We should invest into funds that pick companies. This allows us to potentially invest more if the companies are doing well. The resources and expertise represented by these funds in specific deep sectors are unique .”
The seven fund managers are focused on underserved founders. The seven fund managers are Washington, D.C.’s 100KM Ventures, New York’s AIN Ventures, Houston’s The Artemis Fund, Portland, Oregon’s The BFM Fund, Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s Idea Fund Partners, Atlanta’s Valor Ventures, and Tysons’ Veteran Ventures Capital, whose headquarters recently moved from Tennessee to Virginia.
This is the first round [of funding] commitments. Youngkin said that there will be more.
The Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority’s nonprofit operations arm, VIPC, provides strategic commercialization support and funding to Virginia-based technology startups.