This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Jon Horne, managing director of the Idea Fund of La Crosse.
The venture capital firm recently announced it had raised $31.5 million for a second fund, building on the success of its initial VC fund. It will focus on early-stage companies in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa across agriculture, manufacturing, health care and logistics.
Horne, who previously appeared on the podcast in late 2022, provides an update on the firm’s recent activities and shares insights on the direction for the new fund.
“We saw fantastic performance across the portfolio,” he said. “One of the biggest issues we saw coming into Fund I is what people refer to as the ‘valley of death’ … Wisconsin companies would raise $500,000, do some good things with it, and then just couldn’t get that $1 or $2 million round done.”
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