- Austin-based venture capital firm Next Coast Ventures announced it closed a $130 million second fund
Austin-based venture capital firm Next Coast Ventures announced the close of its $130 million second fund known as NCV II. And with an $85 million debut fund, Next Coast Ventures is now positioned to expand its investments in early stage and high-growth startups outside the coasts.
“Next Coast Ventures’ progress is a direct result of the hard work and dedication of the founders in our portfolio,” said Next Coast Ventures co-founder and managing director Michael Smerklo. “We are incredibly grateful that we get to work with the best entrepreneurs in Next Coast markets and are eager to continue serving as high-growth startups’ local champion in these rising innovation hubs. We have a lot more work to do before reaching our goal, but are grateful we get to share this milestone with our founders and investors that have made it possible.”
Next Coast Ventures is known for being “built for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs” with a focus on providing early-stage capital to founders building disruptive companies in Next Coast markets across the consumer, enterprise and emerging platform sectors.
And Next Coast utilizes the partners’ own experience as entrepreneurs and its Entrepreneurs Council advisory network to provide company-building resources to its portfolio leadership as they scale. Plus the firm has nearly doubled the size of both its internal team and its Entrepreneurs Council in the past six months to meet the needs of its portfolio companies as it continues its expansion.
“Next Coast Ventures has been instrumental to our growth at Everlywell, and they are wholly dedicated to their founders,” added Julia Taylor Cheek, founder and CEO of Austin-based Next Coast Ventures portfolio company, Everlywell. “Their operational experience and ‘think big’ mindset have been a great addition to our board and we are thrilled to have a strong local partner that can provide us with hands-on resources as we scale.”
Earlier this year, Next Coast Ventures has added Zaz (Frasca) Floreani to the deal team as a principal, Jonathan Kaplan as chief operating officer, and Sarah Puil (Ovies) as entrepreneur-in-residence. Plus the firm also added HomeAway Co-founder Brian Sharples, RetailMeNot Founder Cotter Cunningham and SaaS entrepreneur Julian Castelli to its growing Entrepreneurs Council to mentor and advise its portfolio leadership.
Next Coast also announced its first investment out of NCV II in July. The first investment was as the lead in the $12.5 million Series C round in TrustRadius.
“We are very fortunate that our LPs have continued to invest in Next Coast Ventures, we’ve had big goals from the beginning and while we’ve already seen some indicators of success, we plan on continuing to keep our heads down, work hard and do everything we can to serve great entrepreneurs in Austin and other Next Coast markets,” explained Thomas Ball, co-founder and managing director of Next Coast Ventures. “We have seen incredible growth in these rising innovation hubs since we founded our firm in 2015 and know that cities like Austin will continue to be a prime example of what is possible outside the coasts.”
Next Coast Ventures’ first fund put money into 30 portfolio companies located in Next Coast markets, including Texas, Montana, Utah and Minnesota. And in its second fund, the venture firm will continue its investment strategy and remain focused on supporting founders’ personal and professional development post-investment.
