LiveOak Venture Partners, one of Austin's most active venture capital firms, is planning to raise a new $110M investment fund, according to a new federal filing.
A representative with LiveOak declined to comment on the filing.
The move comes three years after LiveOak Venture Partners closed on a $109 million investment fund, which it has been deploying across a dozen-plus deals, often benefiting an Austin-based startup. It's most recent investment was leading a $4.7 million round for Telestax, an Austin-based company that makes real-time messaging, voice and video apps.
LiveOak Venture Partners was founded in 2012 by former Austin Ventures investors Ben Scott, Krishna Srinivasan, and Venu Shamapant. Historically, LiveOak has invested $1 million to $4 million on first-time deals. It tends to invest a total of up to about $10 million in its profile companies.
This new $110 million fund target follows a similar federal filing in February by Austin's Silverton Partners, which indicated it would raise a $100 million investment pool for its fifth VC fund. Silverton Partners' two previous rounds had been $75 million each.
The filings, while indicating the ambition of the VC firms, don't necessarily mean the investors will raise that much money. The filings are rather an indicator for what the firm is hoping to raise.
The moves by Silverton and LiveOak come as other early-stage venture capital firms are expanding in Austin. In March, Next Coast Ventures announced it has secured an $85 million fund to back startups in Austin and beyond. That was the biggest VC fund for early-stage tech startup investment in Austin since LiveOak's $109 million fund emerged three years ago.
While the new firms will likely fuel a new wave of Austin startups, these new funds are relatively small compared to the giant that Austin Ventures had become. Its last fund before bowing out of new early-stage investments was $900 million, about a third of which was dedicated to early-stage companies.
