Avenue Growth Partners has closed Avenue Growth Partners Fund II with $155 million in commitments. The early growth equity fund was significantly oversubscribed and reached its hard cap.
The new vehicle is nearly twice the size of Avenue’s $83 million debut fund. A hard cap represents the maximum amount a private investment firm is permitted to accept for a fund.
Fund II attracted commitments from public pension plans, private foundations, funds of funds and family offices. Limited partners included Accolade Partners, Fairview Capital, GCM Grosvenor, Partners Capital and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Avenue invests in vertical technology companies developing software and AI products for specialized industries. The firm focuses on businesses building deeply integrated platforms for markets with complex workflows and industry-specific requirements.
The firm maintains a concentrated portfolio strategy, investing in a relatively small number of companies so its team can devote additional time and resources to each management team. Avenue plans to use Fund II to continue backing founders at the early growth stage and support them as they scale their businesses.
Avenue’s portfolio spans sectors including life sciences laboratories, trucking, legal services and equipment dealerships. The firm believes advances in artificial intelligence are enabling smaller teams to automate specialized industries that previously required extensive domain expertise and custom software.
The firm recently led an $8 million Series A round for Scispot, an AI-native operating platform for life sciences laboratories. Scispot’s technology is designed to help labs manage data, workflows and operational systems through a unified software layer.
Avenue also led a $10 million Series A for Billables AI, which develops AI-powered timekeeping and revenue operations technology for law firms. Its platform is intended to automate administrative processes connected to tracking work and generating revenue.
Two companies from Avenue’s first fund, Hive and Minga, recently completed recapitalizations with later-stage growth equity and buyout firms. A recapitalization typically introduces new investors or restructures a company’s ownership while allowing existing shareholders to retain a financial interest.
Minga develops technology for schools and educational communities. Its founder and CEO, Jason Richards, said Avenue remained involved after the recapitalization and continued supporting the company’s next stage of growth.
Goodwin Procter served as legal counsel to Fund II.
KEY QUOTES:
“A concentrated portfolio is core to our strategy. Every founder we back gets our full attention because our goal is to help them win their category. Fund II lets us do that with more resources behind each partnership.”
Ryan Russell, Co-Founder and Partner at Avenue Growth Partners
“Avenue has been and continues to be a great partner. They helped us craft the operational playbook to scale, and that partnership didn’t stop when we recapped the business — they’re still building with us for our next phase of growth.”
Jason Richards, Founder and CEO of Minga
“AI is making it possible for small teams to build deeply embedded products in industries that were historically too complex or specialized to automate.”
“The founders we back are building AI-native platforms in sectors including labs, trucking, legal, and equipment dealerships — categories where the next great technology companies will be built.”
Brian Goldsmith, Co-Founder and Partner at Avenue Growth Partners
