One of the issues with the current state of the Portland startup community is the negative of a positive. The positive? Formerly early stage funds have found success, returned multiples on invested capital, matured, raised larger funds, and are now writing larger checks for Seed and Series A rounds.
The negative of that positive? Despite the vacuum created by these funds moving downstream, there has been little sign of the next generation of new early stage funds entering the fray. Until now. Meet 1859 Ventures.
That is why today I am excited to announce the creation of 1859 Ventures. Born out of necessity, this small fund will help fill the gap left by firms who used to help founders at those earliest stages through some sort of funding mechanism.
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The first fund will be $5M and we are currently in the middle of that raise with the hopes of closing by early 2020. We would like to deploy capital as quickly as possible.
For more details on this new “true seed fund” and the objectives its working to accomplish, see Josh Carter’s blog post announcing 1859 Ventures.
