2021 was another active year for the HX Venture Fund.
The venture capital fund-of-funds, launched in 2018 to attract outside venture capital into the Houston region, has fully invested its first oversubscribed $40 million fund. From a pipeline of more than 300 firms interested in the fund's model, HX Venture Fund has made investments into 12 venture capital firms in its portfolio, said Guillermo Borda, managing partner of HX Venture Fund.
HX Venture Fund is actively fundraising for its second fund-of-funds, and the group plans to report results by the end of 2022 at the latest, Borda said. HX Venture Fund announced the $75 million HX Venture Fund II in January 2021. The original HX Venture Fund brought on 18 corporate and institutional limited partners. With HXVF II, the group aims to expand its base of investors.
"I can tell you that our key anchor investors have returned at three times the level of Fund I in terms of commitments," Borda said.
Sandy Guitar, managing director at HX Venture Fund, said that five of the fund's portfolio VCs have invested more than $38 million into seven Houston-area startup companies. One of HXVF's portfolio funds, Boston-based Material Impact, is an investor in Houston-based Nauticus Robotics' go-public deal with blank-check company CleanTech Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: CLAQ). The $560 million merger was announced in mid-December.
HX Venture Fund has been intentional in developing a portfolio of funds with investment strategies that meet the needs of Houston, including investors in life sciences, robotics, software, DevOps and business-to-consumer products, Guitar said.
Meanwhile, HX Venture Fund moved into new office space inside of The Ion, the "innovation hub" developed by Rice Management Co. in Midtown, during 2021, Guitar said.
Several tech startups and accelerator programs have established presences in The Ion since the 280,000-square-foot facility at 4201 Main St. opened last year.
"We do all of our activation meetings there at The Ion to make sure we're having [the interactions that HX Venture Fund] is all about — great VCs getting to meet great entrepreneurs right here in the center of Houston," Guitar said.
