High Alpha Likes Indy ‘Software DNA’
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowFresh off raising a $100 million round of funding, Indianapolis-based High Alpha says it will be looking to launch the next generation great software companies from coast to coast. But the Midwest, and Indianapolis in particular, will likely benefit from the venture studio’s success. Nine of the first 11 startups launched by High Alpha are in Indianapolis. The other two, Chicago and Minneapolis, are Midwest-based enterprises. "We definitely feel like there is a talent opportunity, an advantage here in Indianapolis that we want to take advantage of," said co-founder and partner Eric Tobias. "It’s an incredible place to do business, the government is so supportive, the cost of living is so low, incredible universities… There’s great software DNA here in our community and we feel like we really have all of the ingredients to be successful."
Tobias talked about what’s next for High Alpha in an interview on this weekend’s edition of Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick.
Four founding partners — Scott Dorsey, Kristian Andersen, Mike Fitzgerald and Tobias — raised $35 million to launch High Alpha in 2015, hailing it as "the first venture studio to explicitly unite company creation with venture funding in the enterprise cloud space." It consisted of High Alpha Studio, which provides services to create, operate and support new ventures, and High Alpha Capital, which invests in promising early-stage enterprise software companies.
The eleven companies launched by High Alpha include familiar names like Lessonly, Sigstr and Zylo.
The new, $100 million capital raise will fuel creation of High Alpha Capital II, an $85 million venture fund, and High Alpha Studio II, which will continue to focus on cloud-based startups.
High Alpha says the venture studio is now one of the largest in the world.
View the full interview: