latest round of financing announced late last year. Launch’s other local portfolio company is Cambridge-based Promethegen, which was spun off from MIT last year to create microbe additives for the biofuel industry.
A key feature of Launch’s investment strategy is the firm’s ability to make quick decisions on investments, which are generally made within 10 weeks of companies making their pitches, Boms says. This quick deployment of capital lends itself to the firm’s goal of making about 40 investments this year. (Indeed, Boms told me that Launch’s ability to complete so many deals is one reason why his limited partner has backed the firm rather than channeling his money into an angel investment group’s deals.) Launch doesn’t seek seats on the boards of directors at its portfolio companies. And Boms says the plan is to exit from investments within four years.
Boms and his team bring a mix of investment credentials to Launch. Prior to founding the firm, Boms was a consultant at Fidelity Investments, where he worked with companies on strategies for investing in emerging markets, and before Fidelity he worked in the corporate finance at Citigroup. The rest of the Launch team includes: Bill McCullen, a director in the firm’s Cambridge office and a former equity analyst for Susquehanna Financial Group in Boston; Konstantine Drakonakis, the head of the firm’s New Haven operation, who was previously a manager at tech investment fund Connecticut Innovations; and Jorge Calderon, who manages operations in San Francisco and founded hillView Ventures, an advisory services firm for the venture community.
