CHARLESTON, S.C. & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Good Growth Capital has announced the successful raise of its oversubscribed third fund at over $100M. The majority women- and minority-owned firm is known for investing early in complex technologies that are yielding top returns. Good Growth Capital’s first fund, a 2017 vintage, is tracking to earn top-decile returns. The firm also reports a double-bottom line as an impact investor, focusing on investing for the highest possible return while investing in companies that meet pressing societal needs. This new fund makes Good Growth Capital the largest venture capital fund in South Carolina history and one of the largest early-stage funds in the Southeast.
Good Growth Capital invests in pre-seed through Series B investments in biomedical and health sciences, green tech, data, and physical and material sciences. Sixty percent of Good Growth’s Managing Partners are female and twenty percent are Latino, and the firm reports more than 75% of Good Growth Capital’s portfolio is led by founders from diverse backgrounds. “This is the future of venture capital,” says Good Growth Managing Partner David Mendez. “We don’t need to give these founders any preference, just a level playing field. Their fantastic growth and returns speak for themselves.”
Good Growth has four Managing Partners in Charleston, SC and one in Boston, MA. They are joined by a team of active venture partners and advisors who have started another 30+ companies and are world leaders in technology commercialization.
“When Maureen Stancik Boyce and I started the fund, our goal was to create both the kind of fund we would have wanted to work with as entrepreneurs, and also the kind of fund we wanted to invest in ourselves. We work hard for our portfolio companies and we love what we do,” said Good Growth Capital Managing Partner and Founder Amy Salzhauer. Boyce and Salzhauer had previously started multiple tech companies together and have worked together for 23 years. “Our oversubscribed fund is an exciting validation for our business model and for our strategy. Traditional venture capital funds often fail to identify the kind of entrepreneurs we work with, yet many in our first two funds have become market leaders.”
"It's the best job, helping these tech founders who are working hard to solve world problems," said Maureen Stancik Boyce, PhD, Good Growth Capital Managing Partner and Founder. "The five of us Managing Partners have all started companies, and thrive working with complex tech startups."
Managing Partners Carolyne LaSala and John Osborne round out Good Growth’s leadership team, which focuses on both operational and technical expertise. Together the Managing Partners have started 18 entities worth billions of dollars; Mendez and Osborne have also started and run accelerator programs. LaSala led and launched iTunes Europe, then led and launched the AppStore at Apple. “We designed Good Growth to be able to collaborate across industries, to find and support the best multi-disciplinary startups, regardless of their origins,” says LaSala.
Prior investments from Good Growth Capital that have reached valuations of over US $1 billion include SkyHawk Therapeutics, a drug discovery and development company; Republic, a regulated crowdfunding platform that matches startups to investors seeking early-stage equity investment opportunities; and an alternative energy investment that is still in stealth mode. The firm began investing in these companies at their earliest stages and credits its capacity for funding and growing early-stage companies for much of its success.
Lita Nelsen, retired director of MIT’s Technology Licensing Office and now a licensing consultant and Advisor to Good Growth, understands the value of the fund’s involvement at the earliest stages of a start-up’s development. Says Nelsen, “As everyone knows there is a real shortage for funding early-stage companies in bio and other tech emerging from university research. Good Growth’s first funds were small, but launched dozens of great companies. This larger fund will enable them to do even more, thereby helping to fill an important niche in the entrepreneurial environment.”
About Good Growth Capital
Good Growth Capital is a majority women and minority-managed early-stage venture capital firm with offices in Charleston, SC and Boston, MA, that funds transformative start-ups in sectors including health tech, green tech and data sciences. Good Growth Capital and its funds meet both ESG and UNSDG impact goals. Learn more about our strategy and our portfolio at our website: https://www.goodgrowthvc.com/