Innovate NY Fund

CDVCA serves as the General Partner for New York State’s Innovate NY Fund, L.P., an economic development Fund of Funds, consisting of limited partnership investments into eight New York State-focused, early-stage venture funds.  The $46 million fund is a seed stage business equity fund that supports innovation, job creation, and high growth entrepreneurship throughout the state. The Innovate NY Fund is supported with $35 million in State funds (allocated from the US Treasury’s SSBCI Program) and $10 million from Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, and will leverage up to $450 million in additional private investment.

The purpose of the Innovate NY Fund is to promote technology-led economic growth in the state through targeted investments by regional fund managers (the Seed Funds) into over 100 seed and early stage companies; while additionally encouraging private sector investment across the state.  Unique among state-funded venture capital programs, Innovate NY Fund recognizes effective statewide growth must include its lower income populations. The Fund’s investment criteria include a requirement to invest a portion of proceeds in businesses located in lower income communities, or to meaningfully employ individuals from these communities.

New York’s approach is collaboration with private investors, through an effective matching investment requirement for the participating funds, which includes Goldman Sachs as a limited partner. As part of the Small Business Jobs Act signed into law in September 2010, the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) was created under the US Department of the Treasury to provide direct support to states for programs designed to increase small businesses’ access to credit.

Empire State Development President, CEO & Commissioner Kenneth Adams said, “Access to seed money is essential to building the vibrant small businesses that are the foundation of a strong Upstate economy. This program addresses high-growth firms that are the backbone of an innovation economy.  With this program, we can make critically needed seed-stage capital available to spur job creation and stimulate our economy from the ground up.”

For more information about Innovate NY and the VC Funds involved, click here: NY ESD

Innovate New York Funds

Excell NY

Excell is a New York State-supported seed fund. Although it is a not-for-profit organization, Excell maintains a for-profit discipline by structuring each investment with convertible debt and equity returns so that, over time, the fund becomes self-sustaining or evergreen.

Excell is a VC fund that invests in Seed and Early Stage high-tech startups in New York State focused on Upstate NY. Excell has the dual mission of generating returns and supporting economic development. Excell’s Portfolio includes investments in Medical Device, Materials, Energy, Biotech, Agtech, Imaging, and IT/Software ventures across NY State.

http://excellny.com/

Seed Capital Partners

Seed Capital Partners is an early stage venture capital firm. It specializes in in early stage investments. It seeks to invest in information technology, communications, and financial services sectors.

http://www.z80labs.com/

Stonehenge Capital

Since 1999, Stonehenge Capital has operated at the nexus of finance and community development. We are deliberate in our actions to make both a financial and social impact. We know how private capital can transform underserved communities and help operating businesses grow, and we work with clients and investors to generate double bottom line returns. With fresh thinking that leads to better returns, Stonehenge is not the same old style of investment firm, but something else entirely. Some call it transformational capital. We call it the right way to do business.

Stonehenge focuses on investing in economically distressed communities and areas targeted for revitalization with the support of a variety of federal and state incentive programs. We are a designated Community Development Entity (CDE) that actively participates in both the Federal New Markets Tax Credit Program and 14 State New Markets Tax Credit programs.

Stonehenge Community Development has won eleven allocation awards through the Federal New Markets Tax Credit Program, making it one of the most successful CDEs in the country. Through the Federal NMTC Program, we have invested over $1.1 billion of flexible and nonconventional capital in operating businesses that exhibit strong job creation metrics and a positive impact on minority populations. Special consideration is given to projects located in severely distressed communities, non-metropolitan areas and those in underserved states as designated by the CDFI Fund.

Stonehenge studies the direct and ancillary impact of each investment through its strategic alliance with the NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE.

We believe that doing more with investments means doing more for businesses and communities that are often overlooked or underserved by most investment firms. Stonehenge invests with a purpose, transforming our nation’s workforce and communities.

https://www.stonehengecapital.com/

Golden Seeds Ventures

Golden Seeds is an investment firm dedicated to pursuing market returns through the empowerment of women entrepreneurs and the people who invest in them. The group was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in New York City, with active chapters in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, and Silicon Valley – and active members throughout the country. Golden Seeds’ Angel Network has grown to become one of the largest in the country with over 275 members nationwide. Since 2005, over 3200 companies have applied to Golden Seeds for funding. All companies are evaluated, many proceed through due diligence and receive extensive guidance from Golden Seeds investors. In total, Golden Seeds has invested over $105 million in nearly 150 companies through its angel network and its venture funds. Moreover, the firm and its investors have provided important leadership in this investment sector.

http://www.goldenseedsventurefunds.com/

Cayuga Venture Partners

Cayuga Venture Fund is based in Ithaca, New York. Since 1994, we have been working to create and establish a thriving community of leading edge, high tech start-up companies in Ithaca and upstate New York by providing the necessary capital and other resources they need to grow and prosper. We have a history of opportunistic investing across a wide variety of industry sectors. Many of our companies have a strong Cornell University technology connection. Cornell is one of the nation’s leading research universities, and this results in an attractive array of investment opportunities. We are proud to directly contribute to the vibrant entrepreneurial community in and around the Finger Lakes region and particularly in Ithaca, New York. And we are proud to work with motivated management teams to achieve their long term company goals and consequently generate positive returns for our limited partners.

http://cayugaventures.com/

FF Asset Management

ff Venture Capital (ffVC) is one of the best performing seed- and early-stage venture capital firms investing in some of the strongest growth areas to date, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, machine learning, drones, enterprise cloud software, and crowdfunding. ffVC identifies and invests in technology and technology-enabled companies at their inception – across geographies and emerging industries. With five partners and an acceleration team of 20+ investment and operations professionals, ffVC actively participates with founders to develop products, target markets, and accelerate growth. Since 2008, ffVC has invested in over 90 companies and has helped to create companies with aggregate market value exceeding $4 billion.

We focus on investing in and building companies with the potential to become high-value, market-moving businesses, as well as on mentoring emerging leaders to execute on logical business models and to carefully manage capital resources.

We generally lead the Series Seed and/or Series A rounds and typically make initial investments in the range of $500,000 to $750,000. We also make targeted follow-on investments of up to $5 million within our existing portfolio companies.

http://ffvc.com/

Partnership Fund for New York City

Founded by Henry Kravis in 1996 and capitalized by New York’s leaders of business and finance, our mission is to mobilize our investors’ resources—their money, time and influence—to create jobs, spur new business creation and to expand opportunities for all of the city’s residents and neighborhoods. We invest exclusively in New York City-based ventures—both for-profit and non-profit—with an overall job creation priority.

As an “evergreen” fund, realized gains are continuously reinvested. Since inception, the Fund has invested in excess of $150 million.

https://pfnyc.org/our-investments/