A Silicon Valley venture capital firm has boots on the ground in Pittsburgh and he’s scouting for early stage deals.
Valley Capital Partners, based in Palo Alto, California, has been investing in young tech firms since 2013. It aims to lead seed and Series A rounds, focusing on the enterprise software, artificial intelligence/machine learning, robotics and cybersecurity sectors.
Valley Capital typically writes checks ranging from $3 million to $7 million.
It has yet to do a Pittsburgh transaction, but that’s likely to change soon.
Mitchell Kokko, a general partner and member of Valley Capital’s investment committee, has moved to Pittsburgh from South Bend, Indiana, where Valley Capital also has an office.
The VC’s geographic focus is Silicon Valley and the Midwest. Kokko researched the Rust Belt and liked what he found in Pittsburgh.
“You’ve got major tech companies here, they’re drawing talent to the region,” Kokko said. “And there are great research universities with Pitt and CMU, and a young talent pool here that also pulls people in and causes them to stay.”
That companies are being built in Pittsburgh, grow and enable investors to exit — an example is Duolingo’s 2021 initial public offering — provides more validation, Kokko pointed out.
Then there’s the location. It’s easy to get from Pittsburgh to the other Midwest hubs of Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, he said.
“I was consistently drawn back to Pittsburgh,” Kokko said. “It made a lot of sense. We fit really nicely into the capital ecosystem. There’s a ton of great partners we can begin working with.”
Whether Valley Capital opens a formal Pittsburgh office — and if so, where and when — has not yet been determined. For now, Kokko is getting the lay of the landscape, meeting and exploring.
Prior to joining Valley Capital in 2022, Kokko spent five years at the Notre Dame Pit Road Fund in South Bend. This is the University of Notre Dame’s pre-seed and seed stage venture capital fund.
