Rev1 Ventures in 2019 reported meeting its goal of $2 billion in economic impact six years after reorganizing.
It took just two more years to double that impact to more than $4 billion, according to the organization's annual report, including $1.1 billion of that in 2021.
In an interview with Columbus Business First, CEO Tom Walker said 2021, "was very much a culmination of just over a decade of work of these companies launching and having success in the region. You can't track the success of a region by one fund, one company. It’s a long-term game.
"It’s not about the big exits – it’s about validating the markets, it's about helping entrepreneurs build great companies that can scale here, and connecting those companies to our corporate base."
Client companies also attracted $278 million in outside capital. The previous record for outside investment was $200 million in 2018.
A few years before that, annual totals rarely approached $50 million. Last year more than 30 companies had rounds of $1 million or more, Walker said.
"That means they’re beyond concept, they’re starting to grow some operations," he said.
Companies also generated a combined $136 million in revenue. That also doesn't include ongoing growth of companies such as Updox, which Rev1 no longer tracks because it was acquired.
"All of our service model is focused on market validation and, for the most part, capital-efficient businesses," Walker said. The exceptions are life sciences companies, which are expected to take longer to develop a product to sell.
All totaled, Rev1 clients employ about 950 workers, with an average salary of $106,000, and last year took in 320 interns from 21 colleges. Ten went on to full-time jobs.
Clients include startups that received investment from Rev1-managed funds, went through one of its training programs or rent space in its Kinnear Road headquarters, which has office, manufacturing and lab space.
Rev1 also launched two new funds totaling $30 million last year to fuel the next cohort of early and growing startups – bringing the firm to $120 million under management.
The bulk of last year's total activity in the report is $725 million worth of "exits" for Rev1's startup clients – usually when a tech company goes public or is acquired. The report does not detail them, and Rev1 declined to release specifics.
However, Walker confirmed the report includes activity from VC funds that Rev1 manages on behalf of research institutions and corporations.
Among those funds is State Auto Labs Fund, created by the recently acquired Columbus auto insurer. That fund's first investment in 2018 was in Matterport, a Silicon Valley immersive technology company – which raised $640 million when it went public in a SPAC deal in July 2021. It's not clear how much return State Auto received – it's too small a shareholder to appear in regulatory reports – or how much Rev1 counted.
"That impact comes back to us – it comes back to the companies we support," Walker said. "That was a core part of our corporate innovation work."
Overall, the region broke all investment records in 2021, mostly because of the portfolio of $1.2 billion Drive Capital LLC, before a downturn set in this year.
Rev1 is investing at a much earlier and often much riskier, stage. Leadership consistently advises startups to spend wisely and focus on revenue generation, which helped them weather the pandemic before this year's inflation and other curveballs.
"That puts them in good position, not knowing what’s ahead of us here," Walker said. "It’s stressful for us, it’s stressful for them. The talent market has never been so turbulent.
"We’re firm believers that great companies can start in down markets."
