FAQs About OVF
June 2024
Jon Maroney
FAQs About OVF
OVF is the most active venture fund between Seattle & San Francisco. We invest over $15M annually in the most promising and ambitious startups in Oregon and Southern Washington.
What region does OVF invest? OVF is Portland-based, and we invest in companies with an Oregon or Southern Washington connection. We need at least one senior member of the team to have a primary residence in our region, to have someone to work with and support.
What stage does OVF invest? The earlier the better. Our sweet spot is companies raising $3 - $10M where OVF can write an initial check of $1 - $4M. Our goal is to make 2-3 new investments of this size annually. Additionally, we aim to make 2-3 pre-seed stage new investments of $500k annually, plus substantial reinvestments in successful portfolio companies.
What sectors does OVF invest? OVF is looking for entrepreneurs creating worldclass companies with scalable business models targeting large opportunities in any sector. Most of our investments are in software and data-centric startups, but we’ve also had great success with consumer, advanced materials, and the life sciences.
How is OVF different? We do venture differently. Our fund’s secret sauce is our 180+ venture partners, including business leaders, tech leaders and successful founders, who are eager to open doors for local startups. Individuals in this network support our portfolio companies with recruiting, customer intros, other connections, and guidance.
How big is OVF? OVF is the most active fund in the region with over $180M invested in nearly 80 local companies - 24% of which are BIPOC led and 38% are women led. Pitchbook places OVF’s performance in the top 10% of all VC funds globally.
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN WORKING WITH OVF
We want to meet with anyone starting a venture-profile business in our region. Our intent is to understand your vision and the problems you’re solving to see if we can be helpful. Making just 8 – 10 investments per year allows us to focus our resources and support in a meaningful way.
Our diligence sprints are fast, thorough, transparent and designed to be constructive and helpful to founders. Decisions are made in weeks, not months, and feedback is provided along the way.
To learn more about our investing criteria, please check out our website oregonventurefund.com, follow us on LinkedIn and/or sign up to receive our monthly newsletter.
Want to know what it's like to work with OVF? Ask one of the entrepreneurs we've invested in – you can find them all proudly listed on our website.
LET’S TALK
One of our guiding principles is that direct transparent communication leads to the best relationships and results. If you are an entrepreneur building a company in our region, we want to know you and help you. You can contact us any time – it’s never “too early for OVF” – and we’ll do our best to provide what you’re looking for. Reach out to Jon or Deepthi to learn more about the benefits of becoming an OVF portfolio company.
Jon Maroney
jon@oregonventurefund.com