One of Austin's most active venture capital firms announced it has closed on its second fund, giving it fuel for new investments with startups in Austin and other Texas metros.
LiveOak Venture Partners said its newly closed $105 million fund has already been used in six investments, including Eventador, Osano and Rollick in Austin and AmplifAI in Dallas.
The firm said Fund II marks the start of a broader VC franchise for LiveOak.
“We’ve seen the spectrum of boom and bust cycles over the past two decades," LiveOak co-founder and Partner Venu Shamapant said in a news release. "Our strategy has been to remain true to what we do best — invest in early stage, tech and tech-enabled service companies based in Texas."
LiveOak Venture Partners was founded in 2013 by Shamapant, along with Krishna Srinivasan and Ben Scott. The three met while they were working together at Austin Ventures in 2000.
The firm initially indicated it would start raising Fund II in 2017, according to federal filings. That came three years after it closed on a $109 million investment fund, which was deployed across a dozen-plus deals in Austin and beyond.
Overall, LiveOak has led or co-led 24 deals beyond seed stage. Several of those startups have been acquired in the past year or so. That includes Digital Pharmacists's acquisition for more than $100 million by K1 Investment Management and Opcity's $210 million acquisition by News Corp subsidiary Move, Inc.
With the new fund, LiveOak plans to invest $2 million to $4 million in tech startups, with ability to add on funding to hit up to $10 million.
“Texas is exploding with opportunity,” Srinivasan said. “We are continuing to execute on our proven playbook of creating successful companies for close to 20 years in Texas. Early stage investing is a local neighborhood sport, and as such, we are looking to be the local lead investor and first money in companies to harness their full potential and help create the next generation of category leaders coming out of this market.”
