Arthur Ventures invests in early stage companies with initial investment ranging from $250,000 to $2,000,000. We typically serve as the lead investor, but are open to syndicating with other firms.

The rich and diverse operating experiences of the Arthur Ventures team has a common thread – each have leveraged technology as an enabler and growth accelerant to drive their success. To leverage our experience and add the most value possible to our investments, Arthur Ventures will invest in opportunities in sectors where we have expertise and that leverage technology to drive growth.

These sectors include:

• Enterprise Technology and Web-Enabled Services
• Healthcare
• Agriculture
• Energy

Arthur Ventures has a bias towards the upper Midwest, but will consider any opportunities in North America.

We prefer to target companies located in:

• North Dakota
• South Dakota
• Minnesota
• Iowa
• Nebraska
• Kansas 
• Missouri
• Wisconsin
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Michigan
• Ohio
• Colorado
• Montana
• Wyoming

Focus, Clarity of Purpose and Ability to Add Value

We look for companies that we can understand, can add value to, and are extremely focused on solving a clearly identified customer pain point.

Strong Leadership Team

We must feel that the team we are investing in displays and demonstrates values of leadership and ability which can drive sustainable growth. Curiosity, Community, Authenticity, Humility, and Courage are a few of the qualities we seek in entrepreneurs that we partner with. At the end of the day, we must think the entrepreneurs are the right value fit for the Arthur Ventures growth philosophy and that Arthur Ventures is the type of team the entrepreneurs want 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.

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.

Capital Efficiency

Starting a company is cheaper and more capital efficient than ever before. We seek opportunities that display capital efficient business models that allow a company the time it needs to capitalize on its market opportunity.

Preference for Picks and Shovels

The prospector (or “speculator” some might say) 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 has a better chance to win. We actively seek out these extremely disruptive technology tools and platforms that provide an underlying technology which entire industries and ecosystems can be built on.

Our over-arching goals are similar to that of any venture firm – to enable an entrepreneur to build a successful enterprise that ultimately leads to an exit that is a win for the entrepreneur, employees, and all of its shareholders.

As we are often investing in companies with fewer than 10 employees and just a few paying customers, the specific goal of our investment is to partner with our entrepreneurs to instill in them the business fundamentals that will enable them to successfully scale their business into a market leader.
A critical component in scaling a business is raising additional follow-on capital to capitalize on opportunity. We at Arthur Ventures acknowledge that our investment is unlikely to take the company to the end-state that both the entrepreneur and Arthur Ventures desire. Arthur Ventures has a proven track record of working very closely with our entrepreneurs to leverage our network and deal expertise to help them raise larger follow-on financing from top-tier later stage venture firms that can see the investment through to successful exit.