Firms vie for dollars at Invest Southwest as new fund is announce by Grayhawk
Companies appearing at the annual Invest Southwest Capital Conference this week in hopes of landing seed money have a little more reason to be optimistic this year.
While Arizona has largely been ignored when it comes to venture capital, Grayhawk Capital of Arizona on Friday announced a $28.5 million venture-capital fund that can be used to help finance growing companies and produce more jobs.
“This is really the first venture fund that’s been raised in Arizona in about five years,” said Brian Smith, a Grayhawk managing member. “Unfortunately, Arizona doesn’t have more venture capital, but the good news is we’ll have one good-sized fund off the ground here.”
The $28.5million fund means Grayhawk is almost a third of the way into its goal to build a $100 million fund, Smith said. He also said the company has investors standing by willing to commit another $20million if their investments can be matched.
Read more of the article by Betty Beard at the Arizona Republic here…