Seasoned investor and entrepreneur Mike Dowdle has oversubscribed the first fund of Circadian Ventures. The Atlanta early-stage venture capital fund has $17.1 million to invest in veteran entrepreneurs in the Southeast.
Why it matters: Dowdle founded Circadian Ventures to fill a void in early-stage venture capital in the Atlanta startup ecosystem. Circadian Ventures was one of the first in a string of new local funds. A few months after Circadian’s first close, at least four other early-stage firms announced first funds.
Changing trend: Georgia gained 17 new funds totaling more than $1 billion in capital in 2021, according to PitchBook. The lack of locally available capital is often cited as a weakness to Atlanta’s positioning as an innovation hub, but the growth in 2021 shows that trend could be changing.
At a glance: Circadian Ventures, based in the Atlanta Tech Village, invests in seed-stage rounds and writes checks between $500,000 to $1.5 million. Investors in the fund include wealth advisors and their clients, other entrepreneurs and family offices, most of whom are based in the Atlanta area, Dowdle said.
Inside the fund: The fund has seven investments so far, and Dowdle looks to have about 15 in total. The two most recent investments include Pinwheel, an Austin kids smartphone startup founded by Georgia Tech alum Dane Witbeck, and Cloud Range, a Nashville cybersecurity simulation startup. Circadian portfolio companies have tripled on average every year in revenue, Dowdle said.
What’s next: Dowdle plans to spend the next couple of years investing the first fund and use that success to jumpstart the next fund.
