Next Coast Venture’s thematic investing approach targets Texas and other emerging technology hubs.

Next Coast Ventures, the Austin-based venture capital firm, announced the closure of a $310 million raise across three different funds to invest in founders in the “Next Coast” technology hubs. The raise brings the firm’s assets under management to more than $520 million.  (Yahoo Finance)

Investment vehicles

The $310 million funding was raised for:

• Next Coast Ventures III, the largest of the funds, raised $195 million to invest in and support early-stage tech businesses and entrepreneurs.
• A $50 million opportunity fund, NCV Select I, will enable the firm to continue to support companies from Funds I, II and III.
• Next Coast ETA raised $65 million for entrepreneurs to acquire, manage and eventually exit small and medium-sized businesses.

“These new funds will support entrepreneurs along different paths, whether building businesses from scratch or through the entrepreneurship-through-acquisition or ‘search fund’ model,” said Mike Smerklo, Next Coast Ventures’ co-founder and managing director.

A search fund is an investment vehicle through which an entrepreneur raises funds from investors in order to acquire a company in which they wish to take an active, day-to-day leadership role.

Notable exit transactions

• AlertMedia, an Austin-based company that provides emergency warning communications services, that sold a controlling stake to Vista Equity Partners in March 2021.
•  Tenfold, an Austin-based customer experience integration platform, which was sold to LivePerson in October 2021.
•  Everly Health, which provides comprehensive diagnostic services for consumers and enterprises. The company serves more than 20 million people and 250 enterprise customers annually.
•  Icon, a builder of 3D-printed homes, which has raised an additional $185 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management in February. The latest round brought Icon’s total equity raised to $451 million.

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