The Plymouth Management Company, commonly known as Plymouth Venture Partners, has recently closed its second investment fund, raising $41 million and surpassing
its goal of $30 million.
The eight-year-old venture capital firm raised $23.5 million in its first fund, resulting in 29 investments in mostly firms in the Great Lakes region. Among its most notable successes were
Pump Engineering (acquired in late 2009 for $27 million) and
Accuri Cytometers, a $200 million-plus
exit.
Many of
Plymouth Venture Partners' investments from its first fund were in early stage start-ups for several hundred thousand dollars or just more than $1 million. The second fund, Plymouth Venture Partners Fund II, is expected to make 20 investments over the next 4-5 years, and most of those checks will between for $1-$2 million.
"In your second fund you refine your strategy a bit," says Jeff Barry, partner with
Plymouth Venture Partners. "This is what we're doing this time around."
The downtown Ann Arbor-based VC firm's team of five employees, one intern, and one independent contractor, plans to continue focusing on investing in start-ups with scalable technology that have reached the second-stage of growth. Second stage means the product has traction in the market place and the company is generating revenues. Most of its portfolio start-ups are in the life sciences, IT and advanced manufacturing, but all are second stage with scalable technology that is generating seven figures' worth of revenue.
"What we're doing is investing in a stage," Barry says.
Source: Jeff Barry, partner of Plymouth Management Company
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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