North Carolina-based Front Porch Venture Partners (FPVP) is the latest Southeast-based firm to raise its second fund, and the team is ready to deploy that capital in the regional startup ecosystem.
FPVP announced today it closed a $20 million Fund II, which is quadruple the size of its fund that closed in 2022.
The fund, run by Greggory Bordes, Joe Mancini, and Nikin Shah, invests directly into startups and other VC funds. Fund I includes investments into VCs and startups that Hypepotamus readers will be very familiar with, including Fulcrum Equity Partners, IDEA Fund Partners, Cofounders Capital, Spiffy, Ubiquitous, Krepling, Poppy, Case Status, Soundstripe, and others.
Front Porch’s Investing Thesis
The hybrid model proved to be beneficial as FPVP went out and pitched investors to join Fund II.
“A thesis of diversification really resonated, especially in a turbulent time as we saw in 2023,” Shah told Hypepotamus.
Front Porch’s Partners put in $3 million into the fund, while the rest came from outside investors.
Fund I closed in January of 2022. The Front Porch team started working on raising funds for Fund II at the end of that year. They successfully closed $10 million in October 2022. Then in 2023, things across the venture landscape came to a near standstill.
“It was a brute force effort,” Shah added. “In 2023, we had a lot of conversations and outreach to existing and new investors…but many folks just said, Hey, we’re sitting on the sidelines.”
Shah said that there was a momentum shift during the first quarter of 2024, helping the team close out the round at $20 million.
90 investors ended up joining Fund II.
Those who joined the fund were high net worth individuals, many of whom are affiliated with family offices. While there is a strong concentration of investors in the Southeast, Shah said investors come from across the United States.
FPVP is wasting no time following the Fund II announcement. The team has set a target to make 25 to 30 direct investments out of Fund II. 14 deals have been completed so far.
“There’s always been this talk of great ideas and great entrepreneurs [in the Southeast]. But there is always a tendency of folks saying there is a lack of capital. We’re hoping to unlock capital and be that next generation of capital in the region.”