Insights

Congrats to CED Board & Executive Committee member David Gardner!

PRESS RELEASE – Cary based venture fund, Cofounders Capital, announced today the first closing of its second venture fund which has raised over $20 million so far.

“We were able to fully invest our first fund earlier than we expected because of the tremendous deal flow in the underserved Triangle area” said Managing Partner, David Gardner. “Our investment strategy for our second fund is to repeat the successful formula we used for our first fund – identify the best early-stage Triangle-based B2B software ventures and provide hands on management advice and industry connections to accelerate their time to market and sustainable revenue growth.”

Gardner continues, “This new larger seed fund will also be able to provide follow on capital to back later investment rounds for our portfolio companies which will help them attract new investors and more capital as they grow”.

Investors in Fund II include dozens of successful local entrepreneurs and CEO’s interested in supporting local entrepreneurship and innovation. “We need more funds like Cofounders here that aren’t afraid to be the first money in a very early stage venture and then provide hands-on help especially during that critical first year of business” says investor and serial entrepreneur, Scot Wingo. Another investor, Ven Poole, CEO of Waste Industries, says, “If we want to keep our brightest entrepreneurs here and attract larger later stage capital into North Carolina, we have to support early stage funds like Cofounders.”

Cofounders is known both as a venture fund and as a free startup accelerator sponsored by Gardner and the Town of Cary. “We try to help anyone who wants to start a business”, says Cofounders Partner, Tim McLoughlin, who continues, “We are the only accelerator in the Triangle that is 100% free with full-time advisers available every day and has a venture fund attached to it.”

The Cofounders management team works closely with local universities and industry to identify and foster promising technologies and entrepreneurs. “There is nothing more passionate, resourceful or tenacious than a young empowered entrepreneur”, says Gardner, “We are honored and excited to have another opportunity to continue being impactful in this way.”

About Cofounders Capital
Cofounders Capital is an early-stage seed fund focused on software ventures in the Triangle. Created in 2015, Cofounders partnered with the Town of Cary to provide free lab space to entrepreneurs who receive expert help modeling and vetting their startup ideas as well as in acquiring beta customers. The most promising of these ventures and teams are then funded. Cofounders Capital is managed by successful serial entrepreneur, David Gardner and his Partner, Tim McLoughlin, with a team of over seventy advisers and volunteer mentors who are all investors in the fund, eager to support entrepreneurship in the Triangle and to help our portfolio companies and entrepreneurs succeed.