A laser-focused tech investment group is going in for seconds.
Anzu Partners, a D.C.-based venture capital firm that invests exclusively in industrial technologies, announced Thursday that it launched its second fund, targeting $150 million.
Similar to the group's first fund, which closed in December 2017 at $128 million, Fund II is investing in U.S. and Canada-based private industrial technology companies that innovate in manufacturing, materials, monitoring, measurement and modeling.
Anzu closed the first part of Fund II in March, with current commitments exceeding $110 million, and expects a final close in mid-2019. It will start deploying cash immediately, Managing Partner Whitney Haring-Smith said, after building up a pipeline of potential investments that he called as full as it's ever been.
He said it will use the same strategy as the previous go-round, investing a combined $30 million to $40 million per year in companies with industrial tech that has the potential to "change the economics of the largest corporations in the world."
Anzu Partners’ senior leadership comprises Managing Partners David Michael, David Seldin and Haring-Smith, and its 25-strong staff isn't the usual business type – they include six doctorate degrees in technical disciplines.
"Across our team, it's more common to find someone with a PhD in material science or physics than someone with an MBA," Haring-Smith said.
That science-driven mission helps define the fund's portfolio companies, which have been successful in recent years.
It made a $3.5 million investment in locally based Zeteo Tech, which this week announced a $6.5 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security. Elsewhere, battery-material maker Amastan Technology landed a million-dollar government grant; marine vehicle-coating manufacturer Adaptive Surface Technologies received several million dollars of Department of Energy funding; and blood-testing tech company Banyan Biomarkers won FDA approval and a Department of Defense grant following Anzu investments.
Perhaps its largest success so far is portfolio company Pivotal Systems, which makes gas flow controllers for semiconductor manufacturing: It went public in July last year.
More recently, Anzu successfully exited their investment in Axsun Technologies and announced its newest investment with Liquid Instruments, a developer of testing and measurement equipment whose technology originated at California Institute of Technology and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
In addition to supplying capital, the investment group works with entrepreneurs to provide expertise in business development, market positioning, global scaling and operations. For example, Haring-Smith said, Anzu's talent team placed 30 employees and executives at portfolio companies last year.
The fund’s investors include institutions, family offices, and individuals across the U.S. and overseas. It has additional offices in Boston, San Diego and Tampa Bay.
