Homegrown venture funds continue to take root and strengthen in South Florida.
The latest news: Las OIas Venture Capital announced on Thursday the closing of its inaugural venture capital investment fund, Las Olas VC I LP, at $28.5 million.
The fund has already been making a mark in South Florida: South Florida startups Plum, the maker of an innovative wine appliance, digital health company CarePredict, which tracks health of the elderly, and real estate-tech company Reloquest, a temporary housing platform, are portfolio companies. "We are aiming to be extremely active - ideally we want to find four to six great deals every year," said Mark Volchek, one of LOVC's founding partners.
The fund invests in seed and Series A-stage B2B startups in areas such as enterprise software, tech-enabled business services, financial technology and education technology, among others. The fund seeks to deploy up to $1 million investments and reserves up to an additional $2 million per company for follow-on rounds.
"We are incredibly pleased that the market has been so receptive to early stage venture capital here in Florida. There has historically been a gap at this stage where we invest, companies looking for $1-3 million funding rounds, and many excellent companies have had to relocate to established venture capital sources like Silicon Valley to receive funding," Volchek said in a news release. "We at LOVC believe there is huge untapped opportunity investing in companies outside of those established ecosystems."
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