Investment deals are mounting for Wisconn Valley Ventures, the $100 million Milwaukee-based venture fund supported with $25 million each from Foxconn Technology Group, Advocate Aurora Health, Johnson Controls International plc and Northwestern Mutual.
Over the last 16 months, the fund — which also operates in Silicon Valley and invests in early-stage startups, both domestic and international, working in health care, technology, manufacturing and financial services — has completed three investment deals and is approaching a fourth, said Jason Franklin, the managing director of WC Ventures.
Deals from WV Ventures was initially said to be in the range of $250,000 and $5 million, but the fund has cut checks around $2 million and $2.5 million, Franklin said. The fund was launched in 2018, but the limited partners said it would not become active until a fund manager was hired. Franklin was announced as the fund’s manager in March of 2019.
Franklin talked about the fund’s activity on Wednesday during the virtual Summerfest Tech conference, the annual innovation and technology conference hosted by Milwaukee World Festival Inc., organizer of the Summerfest musical festival. The session on corporate venture capital was moderated by John McDonald, an attorney at Milwaukee’s Godfrey & Kahn who chairs the firm’s venture capital and startup teams and is also on the firm’s technology team, and included Dan Reed, managing director of American Family Ventures, the venture arm of Madison-based American Family Insurance. Read the full story here.
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