Hub-Based Venture Firms

Hubs

Academic Paper
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© edegan.com, 2016

Capital Factory

In-house operating fund? YES

• https://angel.co/capital-factory-fund-4
• "The Capital Factory Fund comes from Austin's most prominent entrepreneurs and investors and only invests in Austin-based tech startups. Investors from around the world are participating who want to dip their toe in the booming Austin market and identify future individual investments. If you are bullish on Austin, then you want to be in this fund."
• Takes in new investors each round
• co-invests based on partners
• Founding date unclear, but Capital Factory founded 2009

1871

In-house operating fund? NO

• Space where companies, ideas, startups come together to share experience
• Has partnerships with VC, but does not seem to have own fund

1776

In-house operating fund? YES

• "We connect our startups to the latest wisdom on how to build highly scalable businesses through our curriculum. To expert mentors who can help startups quickly solve problems. To markets through our institutional and corporate partners. To capital through our investor network and the 1776 Seed Fund."
• Incubator with own seed fund
• http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/techflash/2015/09/calling-all-startups-1776-closes-first-seed-fund.html
• Closed first seed fund at $12.5m late 2015
• Focuses on government in energy, health, education, sustainability, transportation, and smart_tech

American Underground

In-house operating fund? YES

• Invested in Groundfloor for $1m in 2014, classifies as a "Micro VC" so reasonably, has a small personal fund
• Looks like it co-invests
• Mainly a campus space for startups and entrepreneurs to congregate
• "Google for Entrepreneurs enables tech hubs by providing them with technical content, business tools, and infrastructure upgrades so that they can support increasing demand from developers and startups."
• Focus: tech

Galvanize

In-house operating fund? NO

• Lessons for programming, data science, etc.
• University of New Haven
• Locations across US, online classes

Rocket Space

In-house operating fund? NO

• "Corporate membership" for various perks, connections to network of startups
• pseudo-accelerator program of some sort, has various program, so might make some small investments in the program
• Focus: tech

Betamore

In-house operating fund? NO

• has bootcamps for rising VC analysts, but no fund of its own to invest
• programming classes for SQL, etc.
• Became nonprofit 2015, partners with VC in Baltimore and other locations

Packard Place

In-house operating fund? UNLIKELY

• Uses old space of Packard Place Motors, converted into an innovation and acceleration space
• Claims to have multiple accelerator programs in Charlotte
• Mentions nothing about on-site VC

The Venture Center

In-house operating fund? YES

• VC fund based in Arkansas
• Founded in 2013, raised $19m in revenue the past year
• focuses on acceleration and mentorship as a VC
• focus: technology commercialization

The Idea Village

In-house operating fund? NO

• No information on VC on-site
• Just an ecosystem with mentorship and opportunities

Benjamin's Desk

In-house operating fund? NO

• Coworking space for mobile technology
• Showcases work to potential investors, does not invest on its own
• Perks with membership

GSV Labs

In-house operating fund? YES

• invests with listed partners
• over $250m raised in VC 2015
• Founded 2012
• focuses: big-data, edtech, entertainment, sustainability, and mobile
• does not seem to co-invest
• partners with silicon valley investors

Founders Floor

In-house operating fund? YES

• "We are a seed stage investor in technology companies through our private syndicate fund."
• Co-invests? yes "For larger seed rounds we regularly introduce our portfolio companies to in-network seed stage VC’s for co-investment opportunities"
• Also has a pseudo-accelerator and coworking space
• Founded fund in 2014, classified as micro VC(<<$100m)

CyberTech

In-house operating fund? NO

• global space for cybersecurity and IoT
• paid membership, plus an incubator program
• hosts events around the US

Innovation Pavilion

In-house operating fund? NO

• Never mentions in-house VC
• place for connecting VC and startups
• "At the heart of Innovation Pavilion is the entrepreneur. We have a network consisting of investors, supply chain manufacturers, service providers and professional services like financial, legal and marketing. We also encourage collaboration through events and workshops at our facilities." No onsite VC

BestHQ

In-house operating fund? NO

• connects startups and VC
• collaboration/coworking space
• paid membership

Work Hard Pittsburgh

In-house operating fund? NO

• Current model launched in 2016, serves as a business incubator and a co-working space
• No mention of VC

Tampa Bay Wave

In-house operating fund? NO

• space connecting entrepreneurs and startups
• began a startup accelerator that launched in 2013

Think Big Partners

In-house operating fund? NO

• "Think Big Partners helps companies grow faster, smarter and more efficiently through our network of in-house services, community members and national partners. We push the boundaries of the status quo and help entrepreneurs create game changing companies and technologies."
• Not much more information on website than that, definitely no on-site VC

Hacker Lab

In-house operating fund? NO

• coworking space with classes, a "hacker space", and a "maker space"
• Does not invest

Geekdom

In-house operating fund? YES

• Has its own "Geekdom Fund" which invests in early stage IT startups
• focus: IT, tech
• Raised $6.68m in 2014, classifies as micro VC
• coinvests with partner network

Epicenter

In-house operating fund? NO

• part of the Google for Entrepreneurs initiative, strictly a working space
• connects entrepreneurs to coworking space with hands-on mentoring

Awesome Inc

In-house operating fund? YES

• operates funds as a Micro VC to help startups partner with other companies
• Raised about $4.5m from 2015-2016, founded in 2016
• Focuses on education, many programs to teach high schoolers and middle schoolers basic STEM
• Reasonable to expect co-investing with these circumstances

Learn Launch

In-house operating fund? YES

• operates a small fund for seed investments into its Ed-tech accelerator
• Micro VC providing up to $120k to each startup and working with VC partners to provide more
• focus: education
• Fund began as late as 2016, 2017 marks the second Accelerator fund

Catapult Chicago

In-house operating fund? NO

• community of solely tech startups
• Bunch of amenities for membership, including forums, programming, advisors, and "Everest" program

Velocity

In-house operating fund? YES

• Very small fund in the ecosystem
• invests from $10-25k to early stage and seed companies
• Primarily connects companies together in Southern Indiana
• Certainly co-invests
• Funding seems to have started 2015
• focus is tech

Tech Ranch

In-house operating fund? NO

• Education for entrepreneurs, thinking space for ventures since 2008
• Focus on networking
• no mention of VC or funding

ReSET

In-house operating fund? NO

• Paid membership
• nonprofit with no personal fund
• "Its strategic goals are threefold: to be the “go-to” place for impact entrepreneurs, to make Hartford the Impact City, and Connecticut the social enterprise state."
• focus: social entrepreneurship, enterprise

The Atlanta Tech Village

In-house operating fund? NO

• Just seems to be a collaboration space
• Has private offices and communal places for networking and interactions
• Has "scholarship" to waive membership fees, but that does not count as a fund.