Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

From Chapel Hill, NC:

TrueBridge Capital Partners, a Chapel Hill, NC-based venture capital firm, raised $1.6 billion in commitments across five investment vehicles focusing on venture funds and technology companies. According to this article in VCWire, the five funds are

• TrueBridge Capital Partners Fund VIII with $884 million in commitments;
• TrueBridge Seed & Micro-VC II with $189 million in commitments that will focus on investing in seed and micro-VC managers focused on nurturing companies at the earliest stages of formation;
• TrueBridge Direct Fund III, which closed at $253 million in total commitments, invests directly in select mid to late stage technology companies alongside respected venture managers;
• TrueBridge Secondaries I with $230 million in total commitments is a blended portfolio of top-performing mid to late stage companies and venture fund stakes through the rapidly growing venture secondaries market; and
• TrueBridge Blockchain I, described as the firm’s first dedicated blockchain fund, held a final close at $62 million in total commitments.

With these closes, the Firm manages more than $7.5 billion in assets.

From Boulder, CO:

NewVale Capital LLC, a Boulder-based growth equity firm focused on investments in the services architecture underpinning the life science industry, today announced the final close of its inaugural fund. The oversubscribed $167 million fund will accelerate the growth of proven pharmaceutical services companies that play an essential role in bringing medicines to patients.

NewVale invests in services, software, and technologies – the infrastructure of life sciences – that have a proven return on investment for pharmaceutical customers, helping to accelerate timelines, reduce costs and improve quality. With nearly $200 million total under management, the firm makes investments of between $10 and $50 million in growth companies across the continuum of the pharmaceutical value chain, including discovery, clinical, manufacturing, regulatory and commercialization. The NewVale team comprises veteran life science investors, company builders and pharmaceutical executives who bring decades of experience in the global pharmaceutical industry.

Todd Holmes, Founder and Managing Partner of NewVale, said, “While the science behind novel therapeutics has never been more promising, the pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a major evolutionary shift. To contend with its own rapid growth and formidable external pressures, the industry has been remodeling itself in ways that will make it sustainable for the decades ahead. In its evolution, biopharma has quietly become reliant on a vast and complex system of outsourced services that few have focused on, a system that now draws more than half of all dollars invested in biopharma.”

From Bentonville, AR:

46 Venture Capital (46VC), a management firm based in Tulsa with an office in downtown Bentonville, has announced the launch of Dickson & Main Fund I, a venture fund that holds huge potential for early stage tech founders with a strategic connection to the University of Arkansas (UA) and broader Arkansas entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Dickson & Main will support UA-affiliated founders by providing funding and leveraging the university community’s resources to aid their ventures. The selection criteria are based on their innovative ideas, potential for growth, and alignment with the fund’s strategic goals. The goal for the first fund is $15 million. Dickson & Main is 46VC’s fifth fund. It is similar to Hurricane Ventures, designed to be a funding catalyst for University of Tulsa student, faculty, staff and alumni start-ups, but on a much larger scale.

UA’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation will play a pivotal role as the university’s liaison to Dickson & Main. Through its venture intern program, OEI will actively support efforts to raise awareness about the importance of early-stage investment and provide students with educational opportunities in due diligence and fund management.

 

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