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DURHAM – IDEA Fund Partners, has been busy throughout the pandemic, says John Cambier, managing partner, The firm, which raised a $120,000 co-investment fund in July, recently even invested in a New York company.
The NY startup does have a North Carolina connection. “The CFO was a classmate of mine in business school at the University of North Carolina,” Cambier explains. The firm notes on its website that it believes “Good Companies Can Come From Anywhere.”
It was, however, the first time the firm invested in a company without actually meeting the founders face to face, said Cambier.
John Cambier, managing partner and co-founder of Idea Fund Partners. Photo courtesy of Idea Fund Partners.
IDEA Fund invests in early-stage companies, usually from $500.000 to $1 million, leading or co-leading a seed round. In all but one instance, Idea Fund invested as part of a syndicate of other investors. “We invest with angels, angel groups, and other venture capitalists,” Cambier said. “Over the years, we’ve co-invested with over 70 groups.”
Looking for the next Pendo
About half of IDEA Fund’s early-stage investments have been in North Carolina companies, half from elsewhere. In NC it invested in Durham companies Argyle Social and Automated Insights, Raleigh-based Axial Exchange. IDEA Fund was also an early investor in Morrisville e-mail marketing firm iContact, which was acquired by Vocus. Also, Spiffy, and Pendo and wedpics.
All of its portfolio companies are listed on its website, except one that remains in stealth mode.
“We look for companies we think have the potential to become the next Pendo,” Cambier said in an exclusive interview with WRAL TechWire. Pendo is one of the Triangle’s huge success stories, rising to “unicorn” status with a billion-dollar valuation in 2019.
Cambier and Lister Delgado, also a managing partner, co-founded IDEA Fund Partners with David Rizzo and Merrette Moore in 2007. Cambier was one of the creators of NC IDEA when it was spun out of MCNC. “I convinced the board to take 15 million from the balance sheet to form the MCNC Enterprise Fund which would invest in NC companies. He hired Delgado and Merrette Moore to help him invest the funds.
A few years later, IDEA Fund Partners was spun out of NC Idea, which was its principal investor initially and continues to be a valued limited partner.
Working through the pandemic
The company prospects for new investment possibilities three ways, Cambier explains. “Lots of referrals come from people we know, CEOs we know. We have a good professional network. We get a lot of really good deals from people who do a lot of work with startups, lawyers, other VCs.”
IDEA Fund Partners
They get referrals from venture partners of funds active in cities of interest to them: Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Central Florida. Third, they proactively identify other cities that may interest them, such as Charleston.
The pandemic has not affected some of the firm’s portfolio companies heavily, but a small number have been hard-hit, primarily due to the economic effect of COVID on the rest of the economy. Cambier said. “We’ve been pretty fortunate are companies are getting through it.”
Among its portfolio companies doing well, he mentioned a Charleston startup, Punchlist, which serves home sellers and sellers’ agents who need to make time-sensitive repairs after an inspection in order to close. Customers upload a list of repairs that need to be completed, receive a quote within 24 hours, and have repairs completed within a matter of days.
“With the home market so hot, they’ve been going gangbusters,” Cambier said. In the Triangle, he notes that Biospatial is doing well. It is a data platform that collects real-time Emergency Medical Services data for agencies to track. They can overlay this data with gun crime data, drug abuse statistics, or traffic flows to create actionable insights into medical problems across the US.
“They have been doing really cool things through the COVID epidemic. They’re getting state and federal customers and the interest of contract research organizations.”
IDEA Fund Partners’ team not finding COVID cramps their style all that much. “We’ve had a consistent, busy deal flow,” Cambier said. “We’re fortunate that our business lends itself to working from home. We never missed a beat. We already had all the infrastructure in place. All of our systems are in the cloud. We’re using zoom for remote meetings.”
There is even a productive benefit, Cambier said. “All that travel time we get back has allowed us to focus on issues that often get put off. In that sense, it’s been productive.”
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Startup Spotlight: IDEA Fund Partners doesn't miss a beat despite pandemic - WRAL Tech Wire
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