Fund Defined
Arthur Ventures will focus its investments in three target industry sectors and an investment stage that is post-angel investment and pre-institutional venture capital. Our preference is for investment opportunities that have established business models, prototypes or products, and are positioned for rapid growth. However, we are open to hearing from quality entrepreneurs and we are willing to evaluate opportunities that fit our investment focus no matter what the industry or investment stage.
Quality Leadership Team Is Paramount
First and foremost we will seek entrepreneurs and management teams that display and demonstrate the values of leadership and ability which can drive sustainable growth. Integrity, caring, commitment, and courage are the qualities we seek in the entrepreneurs that we partner with.
Accelerated and Rapid Growth
We seek out companies and management teams that have positioned themselves for accelerated and rapid growth. To do this, a company must have a sense of their business model, the marketplace, customers, competitors, and how their product/solution will help solve customer problems and in doing so drive revenue. Growth is the underlying theme in our investment philosophy and companies that can clearly define their market and are striving to grow faster than the market are opportunities we seek to partner with.
Large Markets with Strong Fundamentals
We will invest in companies that address large, quantifiable markets that have positive and favorable macro-economic trends. We prefer that the customers being addressed in these markets are well- funded or have the elasticity and propensity to purchase the product/service at a price point that provides strong margin opportunity and pricing power.
Preference for Picks and Shovels
Enabling technologies that create and or support entire industry growth will be a key focus of our investments. The prospector in the gold rush may or may not win, but it’s the entrepreneur that sells the picks and shovels to those participating in the gold rush that have a better chance to win – we prefer to invest in areas that support and provide an underlying enabling technology or platform which entire industries and ecosystems can be built on.
Information Technology
The background of our team is in software and other information technolgoy related industries. Thus our primary focus on software, hardware, web-based services and related technologies. These are industries where we have deep connections and understand the business models and drivers needed for growth.
Life Sciences
Many life science companies face similar challenges to growth that software companies do. They are R&D dependent and completely reliant on the knowledge of their team to be successful. Our focus here is on bio-technology, drug discovery, medical devices and other enabling technologies.
Clean Technology
Good opportunities exist regionally in clean technology. The mid-west region is a big player in energy and is taking a much larger role in the development of renewable fuels and energy sources. Numerous opportunities exist in enabling technologies for bio-fuels development, clean-coal, energy efficiency, and wind powered technologies. This is an area of focus where “picks and shovels” opportunities exist in the gold rush to cleaner, more efficient, and environmentally sound energy production and consumption strategies.
