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.