Startup Funding

Search Startupfunding above or view our

How to Prepare for Investing in Early Stage Companies

Here are five tips for new angel investors on how to prepare for investing in startups.  1. Budget Your Time & Money  Set a budget for how much money and time to invest — allocate 5% of investable capital.  This is money you may never see again and if you do see it again, it will be a long time.  Also, set a budget for how much time you want to spend with each investment.  Your time investment could outweigh you dollar investment in cost to you. 2. Diversify Your Investments Look to invest in different sectors and stages and certainly not all at one time. As you make investments and see some turn sour you’ll improve your diligence process. 3. Focus on the Team and Company History Focus on the team and their history, not the product and its functionality. Use online due diligence for background checks, tax lien checks, etc. 4. Utilize Data Analytics Use data analytics that can give you a list comparable companies to the ones you are considering to invest in. 5. Be Patient Be patient, most investments are a minimum of a five year holding time and there’s very little you can do to speed things along aside from helping the startup grow and improve. TEN Capital Network Investor Program provides angel investors, vc funds, family offices, and more, with an easy way to invest in Texas-based startups and early-stage companies. Through our online funding portals, one-on-one funding events, and data analytics services we help take the guess-work out of finding investment opportunities to diversify and expand your investment portfolio. Signing up as an investor with TEN is easy and free. Visit our Investor Page and sign up now! If you have any questions, please contact us at info@tencapital.group.

Read More »

Top Investors in Texas Therapeutics Companies

The top ten investors in Texas Therapeutics companies include New Enterprise Associates, Venrock, Canaan Partners, and Silicon Valley Bank and others who have collectively done 3,996 deals. The top 20 VC firms also include StartUp Health, Novartis Venture Fund, Morningside Group and their collective deals reach 5,064. The top 50 VC firms dealflow total 6,229 and include other firms such as, S3 Ventures, Texas Venture Labs, and Oxford Finance Corporation.   Investor Name Investor Type Location Description Number of Investments New Enterprise Associates Venture Capital Menlo Park, California, United States New Enterprise Associates is a California-based global venture capital firm that funds companies across all investment stages. 1,269 Venrock Venture Capital Palo Alto, California, United States Venrock is a venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare companies. 531 Canaan Partners Venture Capital Menlo Park, California, United States Canaan Partners is a California-based early-stage venture capital firm focused on disruptive technology startups and healthcare companies. 466 Silicon Valley Bank Investment Bank Santa Clara, California, United States Silicon Valley Bank works with technology, life science, cleantech, venture capital, private equity and premium wine businesses. 430 Austin Ventures Venture Capital Austin, Texas, United States Austin Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in early stage and middle market companies. 361 ARCH Venture Partners Venture Capital Chicago, Illinois, United States ARCH invests primarily in companies co-founded with leading scientists and entrepreneurs, concentrating on bringing to market innovations 240 Sofinnova Ventures Venture Capital Menlo Park, California, United States Since 1974, Sofinnova Ventures has partnered with entrepreneurs to secure initial funding, build successful teams, win key customers, and 187 Apax Partners Private Equity Firm New York, New York, United States Private equity investment group, Apax Partners, invest in leveraged and management buy-outs, growth capital and late venture funds. 175 Correlation Ventures Venture Capital San Diego, California, United States Correlation Ventures finances early, seed, and later stage venture, and debt financing investments and is based in California. 171 StartUp Health Accelerator New York, New York, United States StartUp Health is a global organization leading the movement to transform health by building a community of Healthcare Transformers. 166 Novartis Venture Fund Corporate Venture Capital Basel, Basel-Stadt, Switzerland Novartis Venture Fund is a venture capital firm focused on companies that develop novel therapeutics and platforms. 158 Morningside Group Venture Capital Shanghai, Shanghai, China Morningside Group is a private investment group founded in 1986 by the Chan family of Hong Kong. 140 Mercury Fund Venture Capital Houston, Texas, United States Mercury Fund is an early-stage venture capital firm. With over $200 million under management, Mercury invests in the middle of the U.S. 119 GE Capital Corporate Venture Capital Ottawa, Ontario, Canada One of General Electric’s largest growth engines, GE Capital Solutions offers lending products, growth capital, revolving lines of credit, 111 Osage University Partners Venture Capital Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, United States Osage University Partners is a venture capital fund investing in start-ups that commercialize university research. 95 Square 1 Bank Venture Debt Durham, North Carolina, United States Square 1 Bank is a full-service commercial bank that provides financial services to entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. 94 CMEA Capital Venture Capital San Francisco, California, United States CMEA Capital caters seed, early, and later stage venture, private equity, and debt financing investments and is based in California. 94 Hercules Capital, Inc. Venture Debt Palo Alto, California, United States Hercules Capital, a California-based company, lends to technology, life sciences, and sustainable technology companies. 88 MB Venture Partners Venture Capital Memphis, Tennessee, United States MB Venture Partners is a Tennessee-based venture capital firm that specializes in investments in the life sciences sector. 86 Burrill & Company Venture Capital San Francisco, California, United States Burrill & Company is a venture capital and private equity firm that invests in life sciences, biotechnology, and healthcare companies. 83 Texas Venture Labs Accelerator Austin, Texas, United States Housed at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs (TVL) provides direct links to the 81 Oxford Finance Corporation Private Equity Firm Alexandria, Virginia, United States Oxford Finance, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, is a specialty financial services firm that provides capital exclusively to life scie 76 RA Capital Management Venture Capital Boston, Massachusetts, United States RA Capital Management is an investment advisor based in Boston specializing in the life-sciences and drug development sectors. 70 Pfizer Venture Investments Corporate Venture Capital New York, New York, United States Pfizer Venture Investments is a venture capital firm. 64 Deerfield Venture Capital New York, New York, United States Deerfield is an investment management firm, committed to advancing healthcare through investment, information and philanthropy. 64 Comerica Bank Investment Bank Reston, Virginia, United States Comerica Bank is a Texas-based financial services corporation that specializes in business and retail banking, and wealth management. 58 Lilly Ventures Corporate Venture Capital Indianapolis, Indiana, United States Lilly Ventures is an Indiana-based venture capital firm that provides investment to companies in the life sciences sector. 54 S3 Ventures Venture Capital Austin, Texas, United States S3 Ventures is a Texas-based, seed- and early-stage venture capital firm that invests in information technology and life sciences companies. 48 TriStar Technology Ventures Venture Capital Nashville, Tennessee, United States TriStar Technology Ventures is a Tennessee-based investment firm focused on pre-seed and seed-stage healthcare innovation companies. 48 Sante Ventures Venture Capital Austin, Texas, United States Santé Ventures is a life sciences venture capital firm that invests exclusively in early-stage companies. 41 The Column Group Venture Capital San Francisco, California, United States The Column Group is a California-based venture capital firm dedicated to developing biotechnology companies. 40 Redmile Group Hedge Fund San Francisco, California, United States Hedge Fund that does Early Stage Venture, Later Stage Venture, Private Equity, Debt Financing, and Post Ipo Equity Investments 37 Rock Springs Capital Venture Capital Baltimore, Maryland, United States Rock Springs Capital is an investment company located in Baltimore, Maryland. Its advisory activities include management services to 36 Excel Venture Management Venture Capital Boston, Massachusetts, United States Excel Venture Management builds companies that apply transformative life science technologies to solve problems

Read More »

Top 50 Investors in Texas Medical Devices

The top ten investors in Texas medical device companies include Sequoia, Battery Ventures, Venrock, Silicon Valley Bank and others who have collectively done 4,414 deals. The top 20 VC firms also include Sofinnova Ventures, Houston Angel network, MPM Capital and their collective deals reach 6,042. The top 50 VC firms dealflow total 8,768 and include other firms such as ONSET Ventures, Three Arch Partners, and Mercury Fund. Investor Name Investor Type Location Description Total Number of Investments Sequoia Capital Venture Capital Menlo Park, California, United States Sequoia is a VC firm focused on energy, financial, enterprise, healthcare, internet, and mobile startups. 1,379 Battery Ventures Venture Capital Boston, Massachusetts, United States Battery Ventures finances technology sector companies with venture capital, private equity, and debt financing investments. 540 Venrock Venture Capital Palo Alto, California, United States Venrock is a venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare companies. 531 Silicon Valley Bank Investment Bank Santa Clara, California, United States Silicon Valley Bank works with technology, life science, cleantech, venture capital, private equity and premium wine businesses. 430 Austin Ventures Venture Capital Austin, Texas, United States Austin Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in early stage and middle market companies. 361 Summit Partners Private Equity Firm Boston, Massachusetts, United States Summit Partners is a growth equity firm that has raised more than $16 billion in capital. 308 Dreamit Accelerator Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Dreamit helps exceptional people build exceptional companies. 235 OrbiMed Private Equity Firm New York, New York, United States OrbiMed is a healthcare-dedicated investment firm, with approximately $5 billion in assets under management. 231 Warburg Pincus Private Equity Firm New York, New York, United States Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm focused on growth investing. 201 Alta Partners Venture Capital San Francisco, California, United States Alta Partners is a leading venture capital firm in life sciences, funding over 130 companies in the industry since 1996. 198 Sofinnova Ventures Venture Capital Menlo Park, California, United States Since 1974, Sofinnova Ventures has partnered with entrepreneurs to secure initial funding, build successful teams, win key customers, and 187 Houston Angel Network Angel Group Houston, Texas, United States Houston Angel Network provides capital to early-stage companies in Texas and the rest of the US. 183 MPM Capital Venture Capital Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States MPM Capital caters to the healthcare sector with seed, early, and later stage venture, and private equity investments. 180 SV Life Sciences Venture Capital Boston, Massachusetts, United States SV Life Sciences is a Boston-based venture capital firm focused on investments in biotechnology and healthcare industry. 178 Apax Partners Private Equity Firm New York, New York, United States Private equity investment group, Apax Partners, invest in leveraged and management buy-outs, growth capital and late venture funds. 175 StartUp Health Accelerator New York, New York, United States StartUp Health is a global organization leading the movement to transform health by building a community of Healthcare Transformers. 166 Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania Government Office Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/NEP) is part of a state-funded economic development initiative. 158 Morningside Group Venture Capital Shanghai, Shanghai, China Morningside Group is a private investment group founded in 1986 by the Chan family of Hong Kong. 140 Mitsui Global Investment Corporate Venture Capital Menlo Park, California, United States Mitsui Global Investmen is a venture capital fund that focuses on early stage companies. Mitsui’s expertise lies in helping 133 Bobby Yazdani Angel San Francisco, California, United States Bobby Yazdani works full-time on the development and support of entrepreneurs through his venture capital firm, Signatures Capital. Drawing from nearly three decades of entrepreneurial experience in Silicon Valley, he mentors, advances and empowers entrepreneurs on their journey to build great companies. In 2014, Bobby was ranked #1 out of 2000 angel investors in a report by CB Insights as having the most successful track record for investing in companies that received follow-on funding. Bobby made his first angel investment in 1989 in medical technology company Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI), where, in addition to providing capital, he wrote software to enhance the accuracy of the company’s early neonatal pulse oximeters. In 1997 Bobby founded Saba, taking the company public in 2000. Today, Saba is the leading provider of Human Capital Development & Management Solutions. Its applications are being used by over 30 million people from 2200 customers across 195 countries and in 37 language 128 ONSET Ventures Venture Capital Menlo Park, California, United States ONSET Ventures provides early-stage venture capital in the areas of IT and medical. 127 Signatures Capital Venture Capital Redwood Shores, California, United States Signatures Capital is a California-based venture capital firm that supports entrepreneurs and leadership teams in building new companies. 125 Mercury Fund Venture Capital Houston, Texas, United States Mercury Fund is an early-stage venture capital firm. With over $200 million under management, Mercury invests in the middle of the U.S. 119 Three Arch Partners Venture Capital Portola Valley, California, United States Three Arch Partners was formed in 1993 to provide young companies with access to relevant clinical and business resources, as well as 112 National Science Foundation Government Office Arlington, Virginia, United States The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science; to 111 GE Capital Corporate Venture Capital Ottawa, Ontario, Canada One of General Electric’s largest growth engines, GE Capital Solutions offers lending products, growth capital, revolving lines of credit, 111 Morgan Stanley Investment Bank Palo Alto, California, United States Morgan Stanley is an American financial services company that offers securities, asset management, and credit services. 109 Novo A/S Venture Capital Hellerup, Hovedstaden, Denmark Novo A/S is the holding company of the Novo Group, wholly-owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. 107 F-Prime Capital Partners Venture Capital Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States F-Prime Capital is a global venture capital firm investing in healthcare and technology. 105 Oxford Bioscience Partners Venture Capital Boston, Massachusetts, United States Oxford Bioscience Partners (OBP), established in

Read More »

Three Ways to Know Your Market Better

One of the key criteria in funding startups is the entrepreneur’s knowledge of the target market and customer. Size of market, growth rates, and segmentation are key components the entrepreneur should know well. In this post we’ll look at three ways to know your market better. The first place to look is on the web. You’ll need to first identify which industry(s) you’re in. From that you can find out several facts about your target market size. The next step is to find out what trade associations and conferences are related to it. You can contact the trade association and find out more about the market. Usually, the director of the association has the key market information you’re seeking and will make that available to you in an email or phone call. Their job is to foster the growth of their industry segment by informing others about it. The third step is to attend a trade conference. You’ll learn more from those on the exhibit hall floor than you can from articles or other means. It’s worth a day walking the show to get the details. Finally, avoid market research reports. These reports cost anywhere from $2,000 to $25,000. Most of these are simply a compilation from a direct mail campaign that is far from comprehensive. While they can be helpful they certainly aren’t worth the money. Best regards, Hall T.

Read More »

VC Profile: FF Venture Capital

Headquarters: New York, NY Sectors: cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, machine learning, hardware, drones, enterprise cloud software, and crowdfunding Description:  ff Venture Capital was founded in 2008 and since then has invested in 90+ companies and helped to create aggregate market value exceeding $4 billion. They were founded by John Frankel and Alex Katz, who are general partners at the firm, Alex also serves as CFO. The firm’s other general partners include David Tenten, Michael Faber, and Adam Plotkin. Their team of over 25 people actively works with founders to develop products, target markets, and accelerate growth. Their funding criteria seeks out those who create new technologies and build upon the expanding capabilities of technology to develop new markets, change behaviors, and solve important problems. They are looking for new ideas and business models before they become established themes, not once they have become mainstream. They want game changers and believe the best companies define their own categories. A few examples of their consistent investing themes include: deep software stack that enables new functionality, efficiencies, and cost savings; Low-cost/High-value networks that tend to gain new users at low marginal cost and improve the user experience with each marginal user. ff Venture Capital does not only provide capital but, every company receives support of their Acceleration Team, which provides hands-on and comprehensive guidance and resources to each of their portfolio companies’ management teams. With them they provide a team of expertise in communications, marketing and branding, recruiting, product engineering and strategy, financial modeling, account and budgeting, community management, and strategic and partner development. In all of their guidance they provide, ff Venture Capital’s main focus is to keep value over valuation. Recent Investments: Socure $13M / Series B Dashbot $2M / Seed (Lead) Estify $6.3M / Series B cielo24 $1.07M / Convertible Note Website: http://ffvc.com/  

Read More »

Food & Beverage Investments Quarterly Review

The Food and Beverage industry has seen a slow down in the quarterly investments. Peaking in the second quarter of 2015, the investment dollars have dropped substantially although the number of deals continues to remain constant if not slightly upward. You can see the investments and deals by quarter here: Quarter Funding (Food & Beverages) Deals (Food & Beverages) 2015 Q1 1090.68 140 2015 Q2 1263.43 142 2015 Q3 799.02 137 2015 Q4 939.69 133 2016 Q1 250.21 153 2016 Q2 395.32 143 2016 Q3 371.09 139 2016 Q4 3165.94 154  

Read More »

Top Investors in Food and Beverage Companies Over the Last 5 Years

The top investors for the last five years by number of deals puts Circle Up at the top of the list with 96 deals, followed by Accel Foods at 29, Food-X at 17, MassChallenge at 16, and 14 by Indie.Bio.  The list contains not only venture capital but funding portals, angel networks, and accelerator groups.  You can see the list here: Last Year Last 2 years Last 5 years CircleUp – 30 CircleUp – 75 CircleUp – 96 AccelFoods – 9 AccelFoods – 20 AccelFoods – 29 CAVU Ventures – 9 Food-X – 17 Food-X – 17 MassChallenge – 6 MassChallenge – 14 MassChallenge – 16 301 INC – 5 Indie.Bio – 12 Indie.Bio – 14 Food-X – 5 CAVU Ventures – 10 Khosla Ventures – 14 New Crop Capital – 5 301 INC – 7 Central Texas Angel Network – 12 S2G Ventures – 5 New Crop Capital – 7 Emil Capital Partners – 11 HSBC – 4 S2G Ventures – 7 Ben Franklin Technology Partners – 10 Indie.Bio – 4 Ben Franklin Technology Partners – 5 CAVU Ventures – 10  

Read More »

Food & Beverage Investments in Q4 2016

The Food and Beverage Industry has seen over $2.8B in funding in nearly 270 deals in Q4 2016. The Ingredients and Flavorings industry leads the way with over $2B worth of funding in 19 deals, followed by Candy & Snack Foods at $221M in 62 deals. Meat, Fish, and Seafood follow with $185M in funding. Check out the complete list of funding and deals by industry: Industry Funding Total # of Deals Ingredients, Flavoring & Condiments $2B 19 Candy & Snack Foods $221M 62 Meat, Fish & Seafood $185M 13 Non-alcoholic Beverages $115M 51 Alcoholic Beverages $73M 69 Food Safety & Preservation $53M 12 Fresh Foods $49M 10 Canned & Frozen Foods $48M 13 Wholesale Food Distributors $46M 6 Dairy Products $36M 8 Bottling & Distribution $7M 2 Food Service $4M 4 Total: $2.85B 269

Read More »

Venture Capital Seeks Food and Beverage Investments

The food and beverage space is seeing tremendous innovation.  Venture capitalists are now making investments into innovative food and beverage companies.   Target investments must bring innovation and offer a scalable business model.  Their food & beverage investments nearly all focus on replacing common food items.  Investments typically target technologies around plant-based protein.  Often, startups raising funding are developing new processes that could change what we eat.  Several trends top the list for venture capitalists.   Here are four food and beverage trends with Texas companies leading the way: Fermented flavors – fermentation brings health benefits and for soda lovers fermentation also provides a natural fizziness to the drink.  Salt and Time and Buddha’ Brew are two Texas-based companies leading the way Food safety testing—new testing tools such as in the field mass spectrometry, and food processors are gaining attention. Evaptainers uses evaporation cooling technology to provide refrigeration for foods  and Green Ocean Sciences has developed a field mass spectrometer for food testing. Next generation foods which include cold brew coffee such as High Brew Coffee and Chameleon Cold Brew.   New fruit and vegetable offerings include novel ways of packaging and distributing fruit and vegetables.  Rhthym Superfoods offers a new way of consuming Kale.   Veggie Noodles delivers vegetables in the form of pasta, and Beanitos offers beans in the form of chips. Floral flavors – adding herbal and plant flavors to foods and beverages such as Sway Water and Daily Greens. Here’s a list of the top 24 VCs in food and beverage investing: Sequoia Capital Benchmark Capital Accel Partners Greylock Partners Andreessen Horowitz Union Square Ventures First Round Capital Bessemer Venture Partners Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers New Enterprise Associates Founders Fund Lightspeed Venture Partners Foundry Group Index Ventures Khosla Ventures Social Capital Emergence Capital Partners True Ventures Floodgate Fund General Catalyst Partners CRV Spark Capital Battery Ventures Redpoint Ventures

Read More »

Site Map

Scroll to Top