Tampa Bay Business Journal: Stonehenge gets $4M investment from Florida Opportunity Fund
Mar 12, 2010
The Tampa Bay Business Journal published this article on March 12, 2010.
The Florida Opportunity Fund said it would commit to invest up to $4 million with Stonehenge Growth Equity Fund I LLP, a venture firm with an extensive Florida portfolio and operations based in Tampa.
The Florida Opportunity Fund is a state-funded program sponsored by Enterprise Florida and managed by Florida First Partners to help boost venture capital funding. The latest commitment now brings the Florida Opportunity Fund commitments to $23 million with local, regional and national funds.
The agreement with Stonehenge is the sixth investment for the $29.5 million Florida Opportunity Fund, which focuses on venture firms seeking to finance seed or early-stage companies in the state’s strategic growth sectors such as biotech, renewable energy, homeland security and information technology, according to a release.
Stonehenge has a team in Tampa that has focused on early-stage ventures in the state over the past decade, investing in more than 17 Florida companies. They include Pilgrim Software, which has operations in Tampa and is a global provider of software for the life science, automotive, aerospace and defense industries.
Stonehenge has combined with out-of-state firms for more than $200 million of investments in its Florida portfolio companies.
During the part year, the fund’s announced commitments included early-stage Florida investor Element Partners, Inflexion Partners of Orlando and Tampa, New Enterprise Associates, Harbert Venture Partners and 5AM Ventures III.