Dundee VC Launches New Fund to Lead SeedStage Investments in the Mighty Middle
Dundee Venture Capital (VC, dundeeventurecapital.com), an Omaha-based seed-stage venture capital firm with offices in Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Louis, announced on March 15 that the firm has closed on more than $25 million in investor commitments for their third venture capital fund. Dundee VC leads seed-stage investments in technology entrepreneurs building in the Mighty Middle, with a specific focus in four key verticals: commerce, construction, transportation and logistics, and financial services.
With a target raise of $50 million, Fund 2020 will be Dundee VC’s largest fund to date and follows their $31 million 2016 fund. Dundee VC was launched in 2010 with the goal of helping scale the Midwest’s tech economy by partnering early with the region’s best tech entrepreneurs. The fund’s launch follows a decade of startup expansion in the region, with Crunchbase’s America’s Mighty Middle Report highlighting 3-4x growth in financing, fund formation, startup growth, and exit events over the past decade.
Previous Dundee VC investments include Summersalt, a leading consumer lifestyle brand which has raised $25M+ in venture capital, and Phone2Action, a leading civic advocacy software platform which was acquired by Frontier Capital in 2019. Fund 2020 has already made five investments, including St. Louis-based companies Mission Control and Whistle, Washington DC-based Dobby, and Minneapolis-based Omnia Fishing.
Fund 2020 Mighty Middle Geographic Focus: Led by a distributed partnership across the Midwest, Dundee Venture Capital has offices in Omaha, Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Louis. Managing Partner and Founder, Mark Hasebroock, founded GiftCertificates.com and Hayneedle Inc. (now a part of Walmart) prior to launching Dundee VC in 2010. Dundee VC has made more than 50 investments across 20 cities since 2010.
Dundee VC’s Managing Partner Mark Hasebroock remarked, “Entrepreneurs in the Mighty Middle no longer get asked what I was asked 20 years ago: ‘Can you really build a tech company here?’ Investors have recognized what entrepreneurs have always known—there is a distinct advantage to launching and growing tech companies in the Mighty Middle. The corporations are here, the talent is here, and now the capital is, too. The companies being launched and funded here today are the ones you will see ringing the opening bell on the stock exchanges before the decade is up.”
“It’s not a matter of if our region collectively catches up to Silicon Valley but when,” said Dundee VC’s newest partner, St. Louis-based Ron Watson. “The Midwest has all of the ingredients for quality VC activity: homegrown talent from our universities, Fortune 500 customers and growing sources of seed capital. Adding St. Louis to the mix—along with everything its business community contributes to a robust national VC ecosystem—further strengthens Dundee VC’s position as a premier seed fund in the region.”
The mission of Dundee Venture Capital remains the same today as it did 10 years ago when it was formed—leading seed rounds for the best tech entrepreneurs in the Mighty Middle and partnering with them to build a better future. Dundee VC provides seed capital and support to founding teams across industries with specific attention to e-commerce, construction tech, transportation and logistics, and fintech. Learn more by visiting dundeeventurecapital.com or follow on Twitter (@dundeevc).