A year after launching its second fund, Triangle investor Front Porch Venture Partners has raised nearly $12.6 million.
The sum, raised from 53 investors, follows a $5 million Fund 1. Fund 2, according to what executives said last year, was targeting $20 million.
In an email, Gregg Bordes, co-founder and managing partner of Front Porch, which now lists a Cary address, said that’s still the plan.
Bordes said investors have been attracted to the firm’s diversified approach – in that it invests in venture capital funds and directly to startups.
“It’s been going quite well,” he said. “We’ve already raised almost three times as much as we did in the first fund, and we’re more confident now of hitting our target of $20 million, maybe even $25 million.”
Front Porch targets companies in the Southeast, its local portfolio including firms such as Klearly and CureMint.
The firm is made up of longtime friends Bordes, Nikin Shah and Joe Mancini, who met at business school at Duke University. All three left the Triangle after graduation, but found themselves returning to the region. And they found that they wanted to turn their shared passion for entrepreneurship into a business.
Key to the concept is the diversified approach, the founders have said. Bordes describes it on LinkedIn as allowing “investors to gain exposure to a broad set (300+) of the regions most promising startups through one simple investment.”
Front Porch’s startup checks typically range between $50,000 and $100,000. It accepts pitches from startups on its website.
