When Overline VC closed an oversubscribed $27.4 million first fund, its investing thesis was simple: Find the best early-stage companies coming out of the Southeast and give those founders access to strong operating partners and a network of support.
Since then Overline has invested in 17 pre-seed and seed-stage startups in the FinTech, SaaS, BioTech, media space (and even one startup literally going to space).
The team announced today its closed its second fund, an over $13 million “Opportunity Fund” raised from current LPs.
For Michael Cohn, managing partner of Overline, this is an opportunity for the team to support founders at later stages of the investing cycle.
“Much in the same way that startups launch an MVP to figure out if a market exists, we view our seed fund as our MVP fund. But we also view the Opportunity Fund as a bit of an MVP to prove to ourselves and to our LPS that we have the discipline and the deal flow to take a position on companies that are scaling,” he told Hypepotamus. “We’re really ‘unicorn hunting’ out of the Opportunity Fund, whether that be into companies that are coming out of our portfolio or the founders that we’ve built relationships with throughout the Southeast.”
Checks coming out of The Opportunity Fund will be around $1 million.
New Faces At Overline
In addition to closing Fund II, the Overline team announced new team members. For Managing Partner Sean O’Brien, closing Fund II and adding new team members are “key milestones in the transition of Overline from a fund to a firm.”
Sara Saxner-Coughlin has joined as Overline’s first Head of Platform, a position she told Hypepotamus will focus on accelerating the growth of startup in both funds.
Saxner-Coughlin previously worked as the Vice President of Growth for Three Five Two and was Manager of Regional and Strategic Partnerships for the Metro Atlanta Chamber from 2017 to 2019.
“Typically funds will invest in a Head of Platform at later stages in their evolution,” added Cohn. “While we hope to make a big impact, we’re still a pretty small fund. But we recognize that the lifeblood of what we are doing here is building community and a network that surrounds our founders. So we believe investing [in a Head of Platform] ahead of typical AUM schedule is going to pay dividends in the future.”
Overline also named its first Venture Partner, Michael Davis.
Davis has worked across New York, Seattle, and Atlanta as a consultant and strategist. He is currently Head of Strategic & Operational Services at Ally.io, a Seattle-based company recently acquired by Microsoft, and has been an operating partner at Overline for the last year.
For Saxner-Coughlin, adding Davis as a Venture Partner is a testament to the strength of Overline’s current pipeline. “We’re able to bring in stellar folks who are domain experts and once they continue to fall in love with the companies, the team, and the ethos that we’re looking to create, they want to be more engaged.”
It will continue to be a busy week for the Overline team, as portfolio companies PadSplit and Onwards HR will be two of 91 startups to join the Venture Atlanta stage.
“Atlanta is having a moment now and we’re happy to be part of it, but we feel this huge commitment to do our part to make sure that this moment continues to build into something really special,” added O’Brien.
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