S3 Ventures, an Austin, TX-based venture capital firm, closed Fund VII, at $250m.
S3 Ventures is solely backed by a philanthropic family with a multibillion-dollar foundation.
The firm, which has assets under management surpassing $900m, invests primarily in Texas-based startups across three sectors: business technology, digital experiences and health care technology. S3 makes initial investments from $500k to $10m in seed, Series A or Series B rounds with capacity to invest more than $20m throughout the life of a company.
Founded in 2005, S3 has made over 50 investments, including more than 25 active portfolio companies and more than 20 exits.
Recent exits include:
- 2021 — Initial public offering by Alkami Technology (Nasdaq: ALKT), a Plano-headquartered digital-banking fintech company;
- 2021 — $500-million acquisition of Levelset, an Austin and New Orleans-based construction-payment company, by California-based construction management software business Procore Technologies (NYSE: PCOR);
- 2020 — $160-million+ acquisition of Acessa Health, an Austin-headquartered developer of a minimally invasive treatment for fibroids, by Massachusetts-based women’s health medical-technology company Hologic (Nasdaq: HOLX);
- 2020 — acquisition of Live Oak Technology, an Austin-headquartered remote financial transaction platform, by San Francisco-headquartered DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU)
- 2018 — acquisition of Favor Delivery, an Austin-headquartered on-demand delivery service company, by San Antonio-based grocer H-E-B;
- 2018 — acquisition of TVA Medical, an Austin-headquartered developer of minimally invasive procedures for chronic-kidney disease patients, by New Jersey-based Becton, Dickinson and Co. (NYSE: BDX)
Those portfolio companies have raised nearly $2 billion in total financing.
The firm is led by Brian R. Smith, who founded the firm with a $20 million first fund 17 years ago, and General Partner Charlie Plauche, who has led over a dozen of the firm’s investments and multiple exits.
The firm’s newest partner, Eric Engineer, joined in 2018, after serving as CEO of Invodo, an S3 Ventures portfolio company acquired that year. Aaron Perman is a principal at S3 Ventures and has worked with the majority of S3’s portfolio companies.
FinSMEs
10/03/2022