Start-up venture firm targets $100m for Southeastern US

Venture capital veterans Tate Garrett, Matthew Shaw and Jeffrey Wolf have launched Sunrock Ventures, targeting investments in the Southeastern US. The three are in the market for the firm’s debut fund, which is targeting $100 million (€70 million).

Tate Garrett

Garrett was previously a senior vice president at Advantage Capital Partners in Florida, where he was in charge of funds targeting Alabama and Florida. Shaw most recently was a general partner at Crossbow Ventures, also headquartered in Florida. Before that, Shaw worked in Texas at Centennial Ventures and Prime New Ventures. Wolf previously co-founded biomedical-focussed Seed-One Ventures in New York.

Sunrock has offices in Tampa and Miami, Florida. The firm said it will invest in 18 to 24 companies from its first fund over the next four years. Its investments will likely be balanced across investment stage and industry, the firm said in a statement.

Matthew Shaw

“The Southeast comprises approximately 20 percent of the nation’s population, economic output and high tech industry, yet it attracted less than 5 percent of the total venture capital investments in 2006, and just 2.3 percent of the total venture capital in the country is managed by firms in the region,” Garrett said in a statement.

Jeffrey Wolf

While relatively few venture firms focus exclusively on the Southeast, Sunrock is not without peers. Other Southeast-focussed venture firms include Noro-Moseley Partners, Redmont Venture Partners, Cordova Ventures, EGL Holdings, Inlet Cove Capital and Aurora Funds.