Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Critical Venture Partners:

TechCrunch reports that Critical Venture Partners is betting that young founders plucked fresh from universities can solve some of the world’s most intractable problems, including climate change, healthcare, and economic opportunity.

The firm, which was founded by a trio of recent graduates from the University of Pennsylvania, have raised a $5 million inaugural fund to woo founders to their portfolio with check sizes ranging between $50,000 and $250,000. A quarter of the fund is reserved for follow-on investments.

Limited partners include Aarti Chandna, Partner at Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund; Seth Goldman, Board Chair of Beyond Meat; and Andrew Kaplan, Partner at Bain Capital.

To attract fresh talent, Critical Venture Partners is working with Yope — an accelerator formerly known as Founder.org that was started by Michael Baum, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Splunk — to launch a $100,000 start-up competition.

SemperVirens:

SemperVirens, a venture fund investing in companies driving workforce transformation through innovation in the enterprise, healthcare, and financial services sectors, announced that it has closed $177 million across two new funds. The firm raised $141 million for its Core Fund III for early stage companies and $36 million for its Growth Opportunity Fund II, dedicated to growth stage investments in its top-performing companies. The new investment vehicles build on the success of SemperVirens’ Core Fund I and Core Fund II, which currently rank in the top decile and top quartile respectively.

For the new funds, SemperVirens welcomed an impressive mix of institutional, impact-oriented, and strategic Limited Partners, including Paychex, ADP Ventures, Healthworx, The Cigna Group Ventures, Guardian, MetLife, Unum, Strada Education Foundation, and Impact Engine.

TGH Ventures:

The Tampa Bay Business Journal reports that TGH Ventures, the innovation and venture capital arm of Tampa General Hospital (TGH), is quickly carving out its place within health care innovation. Launched in 2021, the fund has a portfolio of 10 companies and has its sights set on 10 to 15 more over the next three years.

The article quotes Rachel Feinman, TGH Ventures’ Managing Director and TGH’s Vice President of Innovation, as saying that, with the fund’s $25 million dedicated to investments, the next few years will focus on expanding partnerships, commercializing internal innovations, and strengthening partnerships with local, national and international healthcare ecosystems.

The existing 10 portfolio companies received checks ranging in size from $250,000 to $500,000. All are earlycstage companies whose investments ranged from seed to Series B.

Construct Capital:

Construct Capital, an early stage venture capital firm backing entrepreneurs transforming Foundational Industries through technology, has announced the successful closing of its $300 million Fund III. With this new fund, the Washington, DC-based firm will continue its focus on revitalizing sectors — including manufacturing, logistics and transportation, defense, and energy — that have been neglected and underfunded for decades.

Launched in 2020 by Co-Founders and General Partners Dayna Grayson and Rachel Holt, Construct executes on a concentrated strategy to invest in start-ups that leverage technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and automation to reshape foundational industries essential to the U.S. economy, producing the goods and services that keep society safe and productive. The firm now has $750 million in assets under management, with 42 investments across the first two funds.

Michigan Strategic Fund:

The Michigan Strategic Fund has approved a series of amendments and program updates intended to strengthen Michigan’s leadership in start-up innovation, small business support, and the state’s advanced manufacturing workforce.

The approved measures include an allocation of $5 million from the Jobs for Michigan Investment Fund to the Michigan Innovate Capital Fund (MICIF) program, an amendment allowing MICF investment fund managers to increase the exposure limit per company to a total of $500,000, and an amendment to the grant agreement between the MSF and the Invest Detroit Foundation’s ID Ventures to fund the continuation of investments in the form of loans and equity financing under the MICF program

The MSF board also approved a series of MICF program updates and amendments to help the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) continue to provide essential support to high-tech start-ups in the state.

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