Combination of startup studio services and venture fund propels rapid creation, launch and scale of enterprise cloud companies
INDIANAPOLIS — July 16, 2018 — High Alpha, a leading venture studio, announced today it has raised over $100 million to fuel the next generation of enterprise software, making it one of the largest venture studios in the world. High Alpha’s pioneering venture studio model conceives, launches and scales software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses by uniting company building and venture capital.
High Alpha Studio II, an enterprise cloud startup studio, raised $16.65M from repeat investor Emergence Capital, based in San Francisco and an early investor in cloud luminaries Salesforce, Box and Veeva Systems, alongside new investor Foundry Group, based in Boulder, Colo. Brad Feld, Partner at Foundry Group, will join the High Alpha board alongside Gordon Ritter, Founder and General Partner of Emergence Capital, and the High Alpha partners.
High Alpha Capital, a Seed and Series A venture capital fund, also announced the close of High Alpha Capital II, an $85M fund focused on supporting innovative entrepreneurs building the next generation of enterprise software. With its previous fund of $21M, High Alpha Capital I’s portfolio boasts many leading software startups and scale-ups across North America, including; G2 Crowd, Narvar, SalesLoft, When I Work, Integrate, Terminus, DroneDeploy, Lessonly, Zylo, Sigstr and many others.
“Three years ago, we pioneered the venture studio model by combining a startup studio with a venture capital fund. We are delighted with the 11 enterprise cloud companies we have co-founded and the 21 venture investments we’ve made,” said Scott Dorsey, High Alpha Managing Partner. “With the support of amazing investors like Gordon Ritter from Emergence Capital, Brad Feld from Foundry Group and numerous limited partners in our venture fund, we are doubling-down on our initial vision and making sizeable investments in design, engineering, data science and corporate innovation resources.”
“Emergence Capital has always invested in leading-edge, disruptive technologies that fundamentally improve the way people work,” said Gordon Ritter, Emergence Capital Founder and General Partner. “After partnering with this amazing team to create High Alpha Studio I, we are thrilled to double down on their next set of companies that leverage machine learning, AI and coaching networks to dramatically improve human productivity and make the next era of software the most valuable one yet.”
“With the success of ExactTarget and Salesforce, Indianapolis has emerged as one of the most promising tech ecosystems globally,” said Brad Feld, a partner at Foundry Group, co-founder of Techstars and author of Venture Deals and Startup Communities. “We believe the venture studio model will drive the next generation of tech entrepreneurship, and we are excited to be partnering with the High Alpha team to bring this vision to life.”
This announcement builds on recent momentum across the High Alpha portfolio. To date, investors have poured more than $55 million in follow-on funding into High Alpha Studio’s portfolio companies, including Zylo’s $9.3M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Sigstr’s $5M Series A investment led by Hyde Park Venture Partners. Two of High Alpha Studio I’s companies, Octiv and ClearScholar, were also recently acquired by Conga and Civitas Learning respectively.
About High Alpha
High Alpha is a leading venture studio focused on building next-generation enterprise cloud companies through a new model for entrepreneurship that unites company building and venture capital. The High Alpha team creates and launches new businesses internally, in addition to partnering with entrepreneurs, large corporations and other investors to conceive, launch and scale new businesses. The venture studio is led by proven tech entrepreneurs Scott Dorsey, Eric Tobias, Kristian Andersen and Mike Fitzgerald. For more information: highalpha.com or on Twitter at @highalpha.
