Two Midwest players in the venture capital space are looking to become one of the world's largest pools of capital for startups in the country.
VentureNext Inc., a Midwest VC fund first organized in 2017 that now represents 182 funds across 31 states, and the Midwest Venture Capital Consortium (MVCC), created by Chicago-based venture capital firm VCapital, announced a merger last month that will keep the name VentureNext.
The new venture will combine the two entities to give startup founders access to investment opportunities they may never have had before.
VentureNext started as a monthly investor-only call between VC firms and startup investors, and MVCC was set up as an opportunity for startup founders to pitch to VCs and investors virtually.
"[MVCC] was ideally a one-stop shop for an entrepreneur instead of presenting 50 or 100 VCs, which is still probably on the low side," Ryan Kole, partner at VCapital and startup pitch chair for VentureNext, told Chicago Inno. "Now we're merging that idea with VentureNext."
VentureNext will continue to do monthly investor-only calls, with additional calls for startups to pitch to the combined members of the new company.
Midwest Venture Capital Consortium had a little less than 60 members before merging. Now combined with VentureNext's 182 funds, startup founders will have the opportunity to pitch to 242 investors as once.
Kole added, however, that every member won't be on every call.
"These calls may become sector-specific or stage-specific so only the firms that are more serious about investing will be on the calls, but this is an opportunity for an entrepreneur to present to what could be up to 50 to 100 VCs on a call at once for free," he said. "Typically, entrepreneurs will travel to present at a conference, and to present at a conference, you're paying thousands of dollars just to get in. Plus airfare, hotel, food ... this is the most economic way to approach 240 VCs."
Kole said that with the combined dry powder of all the groups that are now a part of VentureNext, it becomes one of the largest investment funds in the country.
