Augment Ventures is investing locally, making its second investment in one of downtown Ann Arbor's technology staples - LLamasoft.
LLamasoft is a combination of a logistics firm and a tech start-up. Its software helps optimize resources and streamline the logistical process, allowing its users to hit their goals while achieving sustainability targets by tracking the global carbon foot print of complex supply chains.
The company has been growing by leaps and bounds for years, but it recently raised $6 million to help accelerate that growth with Augument Venture participating in its seed capital round.
"There is tremendous potential there both in terms of product launch and market capture," says
Sonali Vijayavargiya, managing director & founder of
Augment Ventures. "They're doing tremendously well. That's why we wanted to be involved with it.
The downtown Ann Arbor-based venture capital firm launched last year as an early-stage venture capital fund. Its specialty is investing in clean-tech and IT start-ups. Those start-ups have defensible intellectual property, capital-efficient business models and global market opportunities. Its first investment came last year when it invested in
Aperia Technologies. The San Francisco-based start-up is developing an automatic tire inflation device that should increase gas mileage, safety, tire life and profit margins (by 30 percent) in fleet operators.
Augment Ventures is aiming to raise a $20 million fund by the end of next year. So far the four-member VC has raised 20 percent of it. Vijayavargiya says her company has enough dry powder that it is considering making as many as three investments over the next few months.
"We are continuously getting deal flow," Vijayavargiya says.
Source: Sonali Vijayavargiya, managing director & founder of Augment Ventures
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.