The Idea Fund of La Crosse is raising $25 million for its second venture capital fund, according to a recent announcement and a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm has $20 million in capital already committed by Wisconsin-based investors and is still in fundraising mode.
The Idea Fund of La Crosse is one of the five Wisconsin venture capital firms backed by the public-private Badger Fund of Funds, a $25 million initiative launched in 2013 to help kick-start the state's venture capital industry.
Unlike its first fund, the Idea Fund's second fund does not include money from the state, Badger Fund of Funds managing director Ken Johnson said. However, Johnson personally invested in the firm's second fund, he said.
Investors in the firm's second fund also include Wisconsin-based private fund of funds firm NVNG Investment Advisors LLC, the Weber family in La Crosse and the State of Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, Johnson said. La Crosse's Gundersen Health System also invested via its innovation arm Edge Ventures, a Gundersen Health spokesperson confirmed.
While the Idea Fund's first fund was focused on investing solely in Wisconsin startups, the second fund will invest in pre-revenue startups in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, according to the announcement. Jonathon Horne, The Idea Fund's managing director, declined to comment due to SEC quiet period constraints.
The Idea Fund of La Crosse's first fund was $13 million, including a $5.2 million commitment from the Badger Fund of Funds. Its focus was on seed-stage startups in western Wisconsin. It invested in 11 companies and is reserving capital to make follow-on investments in those companies, according to the most recent Badger Fund of Funds quarterly report published in May.
Startups that received investment from the first fund included Milwaukee's artificial intelligence-powered supply chain startup PartAnalytics and Madison's Curate Inc., which was bought by a publicly traded company in 2021.
The other Wisconsin venture capital firms backed by the Badger Fund of Funds are Milwaukee's Gateway Capital Partners, the Winnow Fund and Rock River Capital Partners in Madison, and the Winnebago Seed Fund in Neenah.
