In a matter of days, two new early-stage venture firms announced they’re making moves to the Boston-Cambridge area. The first, Procyon Ventures, has a founding partner from MIT Sloan and plans to pour money into data and analytics; the second is NYC-spun Indicator Ventures, an investor in news app Circa which aims to launch an accelerator in Boston this fall.
Here’s the short list of what you need to know about both firms:
Procyon Ventures, Kendall Square
Founding Partner: Millie Liu
A twenty-something self-proclaimed “investor by accident,” Liu graduated from MIT’s School of Management in 2012, and was previously working on an algorithm startup called Twithinks. But what started as a conversation with Chinese investors about an investment in her company turned into a new venture fund, designed in part to help said investors get access to other early-stage stage startups cropping up in the U.S. tech scenes, Liu told BetaBoston.
Fund Size
Liu plans to make seed and Series A investments between $50,000 and $500,000. Procyon’s first "experimental fund" is worth $10 million.
Focus
The big-picture trend of the fund will be on data, whether it's data-processing, analytics, algorithms or machine learning. There won’t be a preference on whether the company is based on the East or West Coast.
Portfolio
So far, Liu has made investments in three startups: social media and e-commerce insights big data company Infinite Analytics, genomic data startup Seven Bridges Genomics and web-based sales automation tool Contastic.
Indicator Ventures, South Station
Founding Partners: Geoffrey Bernstein [Boston], Ben Luntz and Jonathan Struhl [New York]
Bernstein, formerly of Boston hedge fund HighVista Strategies, had worked with his partners on angel investing deals in the past. The threesome got together to take their early-stage investing to the next level, reports BetaBoston. Also involved with Indicator in Boston is Drew Volpe, former Locately co-founder and EIR at Highland Capital Partners, who will serve as a venture partner and CTO-in-residence at the firm's accompanying accelerator.
Fund Size
Indicator is aiming to raise an initial fund of $20 million, from which it will make investments in companies in the seed and Series A stage.
Focus
Bernstein said the firm is scoping out startups in the social and mobile space. The firm has yet to make an investment in a Boston company, but its revival of pre-existing accelerator Advise.me should help. This fall, five to 10 startups will participate and get discounts on law services and space at coworking community WeWork, where Indicator is also based. Executives from the likes of Facebook, Google, Evernote, LinkedIn and Spotify will also be available through Advise.me to startups. While Indicator won’t necessarily back all of participating companies, it will have dibs on investing in any company that comes through the program and will assist startups in raising their first round.
Portfolio
In addition to popular news-reading app Circa, Indicator has invested in eight companies: pay-as-you-go printing service LOB; mobile organization and ecommerce app Box.es; workflow collaboration startup Caplinked; business initiative management platform Shibumi; goal-reaching app Everest; "flashcards on steroids" startup Brainscape; mobile network of conversations app Five; and social CRM startup Nimble.
Writer's Note: Additional startups have been added to Indicator Ventures' list of portfolio companies to reflect the firm's full investment history.
