When we last caught up with investor Mike Dowdle at the end of 2020, he was ready to fix the regional funding gap in the early-stage startup space.
He’s officially oversubscribed his $15 million fund at Circadian Ventures, and he is optimistic by the deal flow he is seeing in the space right now.
He told Hypepotamus there is “no shortage of deals.”
“In the past year, we’ve seen a record number of start-up financings and exits in Atlanta. That money is starting to flow into the start-up ecosystem in the form of new companies and angel investments. I am seeing higher valuation expectations by entrepreneurs which is a by-product of a greater supply of early-stage investment dollars and private equity driving up late-stage valuations,” he told Hypepotamus via email.
Circadian Ventures Fund I brings together several family offices, wealth advisors, tech entrepreneurs, and “a variety of professionals from the real estate industry.”
Fund I has already been busy, as it invested in Southeast-based startups like Cloud Range (Nashville), Cloverly (Atlanta), Rent Ready (Charlotte), and Voxie (Atlanta).
Circadian Ventures reviewed 1,400 deals in 2021 alone, according to Dowdle.
We asked Dowdle if there are any particular tech verticals he feels strongly about moving into 2022. He said that while he has yet to make any blockchain and crypto investments, the fact that “large enterprises continue to spend heavily in cybersecurity, data analytics, supply chain, marketing tech, HR tech, fintech and ESG [is] creating opportunities for start-ups in those verticals.”
