September 5, 2019
By Lynda Kiernan
Midwest private equity investor Cultivation Capital announced it has raised $74 million from a total of 89 limited partners to-date for its third fund, the Cultivation Capital Tech Fund III.
This funding brings Fund III extremely close to its original goal of $75 million, however, Cultivation is open to continue fundraising for up to a year, and a possible corpus of $100 million.
Last year, the firm raised more than $33 million for its Cultivation Capital Life Sciences Fund II, bringing that fund close to its $40 million goal. However, a final close has not been announced.
Founded in 2012, Cultivation usually makes equity investments of between $500,000 and $3 million in pre-Series A rounds for startups in the agriculture, food tech, life sciences, healthcare, and software and IT sectors, in underserved geographies. Past investments include participation in a $2.5 million round in 2015 for St. Louis-based agtech startup, Arvegenix, and co-leading a $1.2 million round for agtech startup S4 with Syngenta Ventures in 2016.
Earlier this year in April, the St. Louis-based firm announced it was opening a Chicago office to strengthen its ability to discover and connect with early-stage tech startups across the Midwest region of the U.S. The office is being co-led by Paul Meier, who joined Cultivation from M25 Group, and Graham Peck, who joined the firm in January of this year as a venture partner.
“Having a physical presence in Chicago will help strengthen our relationships with the entrepreneurial and venture capital ecosystem in the upper Midwest,” said Brian Matthews, the co-founder and general partner of Cultivation Capital, in a statement. “It is a geography where we are seeing both brilliant entrepreneurs and a need for early stage capital.”
– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com
Let GAI News inform your engagement in the agriculture sector.
GAI News provides crucial and timely news and insight to help you stay ahead of critical agricultural trends through free delivery of two weekly newsletters, Ag Investing Weekly and AgTech Intel.