Amid a tough fund-raising climate in the Great Lakes region, a pair of firms in Michigan and Ohio are nevertheless optimistic enough to for a second go-around in a venture capital fund.
Ann Arbor, MI-based Plymouth Management is working with Toledo-based Rocket Ventures to establish a $40 million fund called Plymouth Venture Partners Fund II to invest in growth-stage companies in Michigan and Ohio.
It’s the second fund they’ve done together. The first one—a $24 million fund launched in 2003—also invested primarily in companies in Michigan and Ohio. It completed 29 investments, with 12 liquidity events among them and only one write-off.
An announcement (PDF) by Rocket Ventures last week said that the fund was expected to close at the end of May and a first investment would be announced shortly after that.
The folks at Plymouth Venture Partners say that the first fund was successful because they focused on investing in companies with national and international sales that were not so dependent on the local economy.
Author: Howard Lovy
Howard Lovy is a veteran journalist who has focused primarily on technology, science and innovation during the past decade.
In 2001, he helped launch Small Times Magazine, a nanotech publication based in Ann Arbor, MI, where he built the freelance team and worked closely with writers to set the tone and style for an emerging sector that had never before been covered from a business perspective. Lovy's work at Small Times, and on one of the first nanotechnology-themed blogs, helped him earn a reputation for making complex subjects understandable, interesting, and even entertaining for a broad audience. It also earned him the 2004 Prize in Communication from the Foresight Institute, a nanotech think tank.
In his freelance work, Lovy covers nanotechnology in addition to technological innovation in Michigan with an emphasis on efforts to survive and retool in the state's post-automotive age. Lovy's work has appeared in many publications, including Wired News, Salon.com, the Wall Street Journal, The Detroit News, The Scientist, the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, Michigan Messenger, and the Ann Arbor Chronicle.
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