Oregon Venture Fund adds new principal as it aspires to bigger investments

Oregon hasn’t produced many prominent startups in the past two decades, but among those that have thrived, a large portion have one thing in common: an early investment from the Oregon Venture Fund.

The regional firm manages $250 million in investments and says it has produced a 34% average annual return for its investors since its founding in 2007.

OVF’s portfolio spans the full range of industries in Oregon and southwest Washington – from boutique ice cream purveyor Salt & Straw to newly public biotech startup Absci to semiconductor research firm Inpria, which sold last month for a half-billion dollars.

“We do get the pick of the litter,” said Eric Rosenfeld, OVF’s co-founder and managing partner.

The venture fund, which began as the Oregon Angel Fund, is now hoping to take another step up. The firm has added a new principal member from Silicon Valley, Alline Akintore, to lead its research into prospective investments.

And OVF is aiming to step up the scale of its investments, from $2 million to $4 million now to as much as $10 million in the near future.

“The companies we’re backing here, they have competitors all over the world that are probably getting funded at higher levels,” Rosenfeld said. Oregon startups need more capital available at their early stages in order to match the achievements of their rivals elsewhere.

Entrepreneurs have long complained that raising money in Oregon is far more challenging than in neighboring states.

Oregon startups raised just $744 million in venture capital last year, according to the National Venture Capital Association, compared to more than $5 billion in Washington and $86 billion in California.

But Akintore, who joined OVF in September to lead its due diligence process, said she wanted to work in an area that is emerging and growing.

“The Bay Area’s crazy,” Akintore said. “I just wanted sanity.”

Originally from Rwanda, Akintore had been a newspaper columnist, a General Electric engineer and a fellow with the World Economic Forum before earning her MBA at Stanford last year. At investment funds in the Bay Area, Akintore said managers are expected to stay in their lane – specializing in one industry.

Oregon’s startup ecosystem isn’t big enough for an investment manager to specialize. So at OVF, everyone works across industries as the fund evaluates investment opportunities and assists the executives at the fund’s portfolio companies.

“For me,” Akintore said, “I actually like what being more broad allows intellectually.”

For industry expertise, OVF draws on its own investors. Unlike bigger funds, with have large institutional backing, OVF’s capital comes from 180 regional executives and former entrepreneurs.

While OVF has become Oregon’s most prominent local investor, Akintore said the long-run success of regional entrepreneurship demands more competition. New funds in the Oregon market would bring more capital to local entrepreneurs and make the state a more inviting place to start an ambitious business.

“When you have more investors, you have bigger deals,” Akintore said. “And I think bigger deals make the region more competitive.”

— Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | Twitter: @rogoway |