Maryland Venture Fund

A state-funded seed and early-stage venture fund. The Maryland Venture Fund is an evergreen fund making high impact direct investments in technology companies and indirect investments in private venture capital funds. Approximately 60 percent of the Fund is invested in technology companies in the areas of software, communications, and IT security, and 40 percent of the Fund is invested in life sciences companies in the areas of therapeutics, medical devices, and diagnostics.

The Fund typically invests at the first round of institutional financing and works with emerging companies to move them into their next stage of development as a viable business. The amount of investment ranges from $100,000 to $1,000,000. Investments are generally in the form of equity or convertible debt, either as lead investor or following the terms of a lead investor.

Some Key Investment Criteria

• Companies must be in a technology industry. Areas of technology include, but not limited to life sciences–therapeutics, medical devices and diagnostics and information technology–software, communications and IT security
• The applicant must agree to maintain its principal place of business in Maryland for five years
• Companies with principal offices outside the State of Maryland will be considered if they will commit to move to Maryland

The Fund also assists in the active management and support of InvestMaryland. InvestMaryland is a funding source for early, mid and late stage growth companies. Through a premium insurance tax credit auction sale, the State of Maryland raised $84M to invest in early stage technologies in the areas of software, communications, cyber-security and life sciences. More information can be found here: InvestMaryland.

In addition to InvestMaryland, the Fund also supports the InvestMaryland Challenge. The InvestMaryland Challenge is a national seed and early-stage business competition hosted by the State of Maryland. The Challenge will award $300,000 in grants and a host of business services to companies in the life sciences and high tech industries. More information can be found here: InvestMaryland Challenge.

For more information, please contact a member of our team:

Thomas Dann
Managing Director

Frank Dickson
Venture Partner

James Keeratisakdawong
Principal