Two major southeastern venture firms have merged to pool their resources for venture funding in the Southeast. Atlanta-based BIP Capital, one of the largest venture firms in the Southeast, and Accelerant Venture Capital will now operate as one.
Paul Iaffaldano, founder and managing partner of Accelerant, will become managing director at BIP, and former managing director Mark Buffington has been promoted to CEO.
BIP has been instrumental in the growth of many Georgia and Atlanta-based tech companies, including such names as Ingenious Med, QASymphony, UserIQ, Luma, NexDefense, and Monsieur. In a decade, they have invested 80 percent of nearly $200 million in Georgia companies.
“As one of the Southeast’s largest and most active venture firms, we’re already highly involved in the region’s emerging business ecosystem,” said BIP Capital CEO Mark Buffington. “Our merger with Accelerant enables us to continue to expand our bandwidth and range of expertise so we can support an even greater number of ventures. We believe our growth is indicative of the thriving entrepreneurial scene in Atlanta and beyond.”
Accelerant is another locally-committed firm, with big exits like Brightwhistle (acquired by Influence Health) and Blinq Media (acquired by Gannett) in its roster. Its $25 million early-stage fund will now move under the BIP umbrella.
“As BIP Capital continues to grow in scale, both in terms of dollars entrusted to us and in the number of portfolio companies, we had a real need to grow our team,” said Buffington. “Paul is a highly successful investor with significant experience growing and scaling businesses in many of the same spaces we invest in. Just as importantly, his approach to taking risk and helping portfolio companies scale is similar to ours — he’s the right fit within our group.”
BIP Capital calls its approach to investment “entrepreneur-first” — rather than just putting money into a company, they focus on developing a partnership with young companies to improve their operations and help them scale as sustainable businesses.
“Picking the right company to invest in is only half the battle. The real success comes from taking a disciplined, systematic approach to help grow businesses faster. This concept is the ingredient that has driven the performance of both firms,” says Iaffaldano.
Look for more on these venture leaders’ approach to investing next week.
Featured photo via Mark Buffington, inline via Accelerant Ventures.
