New venture fund in Raleigh chases $25 million goal
Dubbed OPC Venture Fund I LP, it’s out of Raleigh-based Oval Park Capital and is soliciting minimum investments of $200,000 each to invest in technology companies. And of the fund's $25 million target, it’s raised $4.5 million so far, securities filings show.
Oval Park is the brainchild of Justin Wright-Eakes, a Durham native who spent eight years working at hedge funds in New York City before returning to the Triangle in 2015 to start his own firm.
“I wanted to work closely with founders, with companies, to help them create value as opposed to the hedge fund strategy, which is about taking value from companies,” he said.
After getting his feet wet through angel investing, Wright-Eakes created Oval Park, which began sponsoring its own deals in 2018, deploying special purpose vehicles to invest in companies. Wright-Eakes began approaching high net-worth individuals and family offices to fund the investments. Each fund was dedicated to a specific investment, such as a $350,000 round that, a year ago, contributed to the $5 million Series A round of lotion startup Carpe.
But raising funds deal by deal isn’t the easiest way to invest.
“In December of last year … we wanted to stop having to herd cats every time we wanted to make an investment,” Wright-Eakes said. “So we made a decision that a committed fund was the right thing to do. It would allow us to be more nimble.”
And that’s where the new fund came in, formally launched in June with its first close in July.
Raising a round in a pandemic is not for the faint of heart. As Wright-Eakes was preparing to fundraise in April, “I was thinking to myself, this has to be the worst time to be raising a fund.”
But it actually went smoother than he had anticipated. Wright-Eakes credits opportunity.
“One of the really interesting things is, because of the pandemic, a lot of other venture capital funds have backed out of the market,” he said. With many VCs directing their funds toward existing portfolio companies, it means less competition for startup funds like Oval Park’s.
“As an opportunistic new fund, we’re seeing a lot more deals, a lot less competition for deals, valuations are down across the board,” he said. And he’s also seeing successful startups. “Technological solutions are going to be a really critical focus as people try to find ways to work remotely. … We’re very confident that, if we’re able to raise the full fund, this is going to be one of the best times to deploy new capital.”
According to securities filings, the fund has 14 investors so far. Wright-Eakes said that count is dominated by investors he’s previously worked with. When the round is two thirds of the way closed, he said the plan is to reach out to smaller institutional partners as well.
While the round is targeted to raise $25 million, “we may raise up to $40 million depending on what the fundraising looks like,” he said.
The plan is to invest in four to six different companies over the next four years, creating a portfolio of between 15 and 25 firms. The goal is to invest in seed stage and Series A companies, filling a funding gap he sees not just in North Carolina, but across the Southeast. The focus will be on deep technology and enterprise software firms, Wright-Eakes said, “but we’re really looking to partner with founders, really exceptional founders that are having trouble accessing capital.”
And he already has targets in mind. The fund has already made two investments – one locally and one in Atlanta. By the end of the year, he hopes to have made four investments. And the goal is to have representation from across the Southeast.
“We’ve been actively sourcing and screening deals for the last five years,” he said. “The only thing that’s changing here is the funding vehicle. Instead of spinning up a new special purpose vehicle every time we want to make an investment, it’s all going to be pooled into this fund.”
Wright-Eakes said most investments are the product of referrals, but that he does take cold inquiries through Oval Park’s website.