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Halcyon Venture Partners was spun off from the D.C. accelerator Halcyon earlier this year to turbocharge its support of social impact startups.
Kate Goodall, a Halcyon co-founder, stepped away from her role as the accelerator’s CEO in January to lead the new standalone entity, which is seeking to raise as much as $50 million for its second investment vehicle, Halcyon Fund II.
The second fund has pulled in $8 million to date and made investments in two companies: TadHealth, an Irvine, California-based startup that provides operations management to schools and other organizations for mental health services; and Sylvarum, an Argentinean startup that uses electro-stimulation technology to bolster agricultural yields. TadHealth also received funding from Halcyon Angels, Halcyon’s angel investing arm that was formed in 2020.
All that is on top of the roughly $5 million Halcyon Venture Partners’ first fund invested in 18 companies, some of which have gone on to be acquired. As of July 1, Halcyon Venture Partners has about $15 million in assets under management.
Goodall told us earlier this year that Halcyon Venture Partners will invest in the “most promising” seed-stage startups in the spheres of climate, health and what it calls equity-tech — companies using technology aimed at closing a social or financial gap. Some will come from Halcyon’s accelerator, but mostly it’s looking for companies poised for “explosive growth” that simply aren’t getting noticed by the broader venture capital industry.
“The capital markets for impact-driven ventures — particularly those founded by underrepresented entrepreneurs — are inefficient,” Goodall said. “HVP is helping to solve that problem by sourcing, de-risking, and helping the most promising ventures in climate, health, and equitytech to grow in size and scale at speed.”
Halcyon Venture Partners is a lean operation, with Goodall and fellow General Partner Dahna Goldstein as its only employees for now. Goodall said the firm plans to hire more investment professionals as it ramps up its investments.
Halcyon Venture Partners
- General partners: Kate Goodall, Dahna Goldstein
- Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
- Assets under management: $15 million
- Full-time employees: 2
