Venture Capitalists in Florida: You have to be in the money
If you live in Florida and already have a small business and need resources to expand it but don’t have them on hand or don’t know how to get them, Patrick Dwyer knows that one thing you could do is to find a Venture Capitalist to invest in your startup. If your company is young and it is offering a unique product or service that currently is not being offered somewhere else in the market, or it is not being offered correctly, you are very likely to find a Venture Capitalist to invest in your idea and help your company grow.
In a larger sense, a Venture Capitalist is an investor or funding organization that either provides capital to startup ventures or supports small companies that have already shown a significant history of returns and wish to grow but do not have enough resources to do so. Different to Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists are willing to invest in deals worth millions of dollars because they want to earn a massive return on their investments if the startup ventures they invest in are a success. They usually ask to be placed as partial owner of the company in which they are investing and expect to have a say in management decisions.
Most of the times, Venture Capitalists invest in deals that banks wouldn’t accept and are wealthy enough to afford the risk of losing their money if the young and inexperienced company they invest in doesn’t turn out to be a success. However, Venture Capitalists tend to have a keen eye for business and choose to invest in startups build on great ideas and supported by strong management teams.
In the U.S. the first venture capital firms were founded more than 100 years ago. Most of these firms were born in Harvard’s business school and spread around the entire country. In Florida, a group of academics and representative business figures founded a successful entrepreneurial community in 1984, called The Florida Venture Forum. This organization’s main goal is to help ensure the success of entrepreneurial ventures by offering expert counsel, exposure to funding opportunities, educational advice and managerial assistance. It works as a non-profit organization and is supported locally by private companies, service providers, venture capitalists and academic institutions.
Since the funding of The Florida Venture Forum, every year many events meant to benefit both investors and startups are hosted in the Sunshine State, helping the numbers rise in favor of the State’s economy. Just in 2015, Florida ranked 14th among states in venture funding, having $460.8 million dollars injected from venture capital into 58 deals.
Keeping in mind all this information, the real question for those in Florida interested in having some capital injected into their business is “who can fund my Startup Venture”. Below you will find a list of organizations which are willing to invest millions in your idea:
Caerus Ventures
This organization embraces the contemporary entrepreneurial spirit. It is constantly in the look for the next greatest business idea. One of its main goals is to add value to startups through the formation of strategic relationships, the introduction of capital, and business development. Caerus Ventures works as an incubator of innovative concepts and pioneering organizations, supplying them with the capital, resources and relationships necessary to achieve their goals and become successful.
Antares Capital Corporation
This organization is a private venture capital firm which has a broad background in a variety of industries and business models. It invests equity capital in developmental and expansion-stage business and in management buy-out opportunities.
Antares Capital Corporation works with a highly-experienced team formed by operating managers and entrepreneurs, willing to be constructive and helpful to the management teams running the companies in which the organization invests in.
In order to be a qualifying candidate for this fund to invest in your startup, you should have a good management team in place, established sales, and serve large and growing markets. It does not matter in which segment of the market your industry is located at, as long as your business idea is likely to become a success, Antares Capital Corporation is willing to help you grow.
Ballast Point Ventures, L.P.
This fund is a venture capital fund established to offer expansion capital for rapidly growing, privately owned companies in a wide range of industries, such as communications, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, consumer products and specialty retail.
The Ballast Point Ventures invests mainly in companies located in Florida and Texas, and so far it has more than 60 years of combined experience investing in and building private, high-growth companies in a number of industries. It is focused on making equity investments ranging in size from $1.0 million to $5.0 million, which usually gives Ballast Point Ventures the chance to own minority positions in businesses owned and operated by outstanding management teams.
To read more about Venture Capitalists in Florida, click here.
