About Us

The New York Ventures Direct Fund is a $100 million venture capital fund that invests in seed and early-stage businesses throughout New York State. The Fund provides critical funding to support innovative, emerging startup businesses to stimulate job creation and drive economic growth.

Approach

Our Approach:

• We focus on Series A investments and select seed rounds.
• We provide capital for first-time CEOs and/or founders and specifically consider geographic regions and minority and women founders who are traditionally not adequately served by the venture community.
•  We invest in strategic industry sectors including information technology, life sciences, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing.
• Our initial Series A investments typically range in size from $500,000 to $1.5 million with follow-on reserves of 1-3 times the initial investment amount.  Our Seed investments range in size from $150,000 - $500,000.
• We collaborate with other institutional investors and require at least a 2:1 match from private sources at the time of investment.

Eligibility

Eligibility Requirements

• Companies must be located in, or agree in writing to be located in, NYS and have the potential to generate economic activity in the State, and
• Participate in an emerging technology field (as defined below) and are achieving, or have the potential to achieve, technological advances and innovation.

Industry Investment Focus

Investments are focused on emerging technology fields where NYS has particular strengths or considers them to be of strategic importance.  These include:

• Information Technology – hardware, software, and technology-enabled services
• Life Sciences – pharmaceuticals, diagnostic and medical devices
• Clean energy – energy generation, management and storage
• Advanced Manufacturing – materials, processes or equipment

Portfolio

Artemis, BlocPower,  Citymart, Conamix, Concertio, Cureatr, EkoStinger, ENB Therapeutics, Envisagenics, Forkhead Biotherapeutic, GiveGab, Graphenix Development, Kangarootime, Kinvolved, Loliware, NOHMs Technology, PostProcess, RedPin Therapeutics, SeamlessDocs, Somadetect, Soundmind, TARA Biosystems, Token, Urban Electric Power, UniteUs, Ursa Space Systems, VitalVio, Yesse Technologies

Team

Pravina Raghavan, EVP, Small Business and Technology Development

Jennifer Tegan, Managing Director

Clayton Besch, Director

Momo Bi, Director

Jonathan Greene, Senior Director

Sharon Rutter, Senior Director Fund of Funds

Charles Butler, Project Associate

Connecting With Us

To apply for funds, please click here and submit a short written summary and/or deck about your company

Please email all general questions to: [email protected]