The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) announced today that CIT GAP Funds has been named Virginia’s most active investor by CB Insights, developer of a tech market intelligence platform that analyzes millions of data points on venture capital, startups, patents, partnerships, and news mentions to predict future technology trends. CIT GAP Funds joins an impressive list of VCs, including California’s Andreessen Horowitz, New York’s Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and Washington D.C.’s New Enterprise Associates.
“We are proud to be acknowledged by CB Insights for our seed and early stage investment leadership in Virginia for the third successive year,” said Tom Weithman, CIT’s Chief Investment Officer and CIT GAP Funds Managing Director. “Through our continued investment in key sectors critical to the Commonwealth’s growth, such as cybersecurity, data analytics, unmanned systems and the life sciences, we catalyze both private sector investment and the development of Virginia’s next-generation technology economy.”
With over 200 investments spanning the breadth of the Commonwealth, including Northern Virginia, Greater Richmond, Charlottesville, Hampton Roads, the Roanoke-Blacksburg Corridor, the Valley, Southside, and Southwest Virginia, CIT GAP Funds has helped stimulate university technology commercialization, new company formation and job growth, and have leveraged over $800 million of private capital onto the balance sheets of Virginia’s high growth companies. Funds have come from over 900 different investment sources, with 80 percent including out-of-state and blue-chip funding sources from across the U.S.
Now in its second decade of financing Virginia’s high-growth start-ups, CIT GAP Funds continues to lead the way in 2019. Most recently, CIT announced investments in Chesapeake, VA-based DroneUp, a start-up serving the government and commercial drone industries, and Bristol, VA-based Micronic Technologies, Inc., a developer of sustainable water purification technology. “CIT’s sustained commitment to investing at the earliest stages of company development, positions CIT GAP Funds as a fundamental building block of the Commonwealth’s start-up ecosystem,” said Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade, Brian Ball.
CB Insights is a gateway to smarter and faster intelligence on high growth private companies. Used by those engaged in private equity, venture capital, angel investment, and consulting for deal sourcing, due diligence, and market and competitive intelligence, CB Insights was created to assist in discovering the right private company information in the most efficient, comprehensive way. In this recent study, CB Insights analyzed the most active venture capital firm in each state, based on unique tech investments from 2014 to 2019 YTD (Jan. 24, 2019).
For more information about CIT GAP Funds, please visit www.citgapfunds.org.
About CIT GAP Funds
CIT GAP Funds makes seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology, clean tech and life science companies with a high potential for achieving rapid growth and generating significant economic return for entrepreneurs, co-investors and the Commonwealth of Virginia. CIT GAP Funds’ investments are overseen by the CIT GAP Funds Investment Advisory Board (IAB). This independent, third-party panel consists of leading regional entrepreneurs, angel and strategic investors, and venture capital firms such as New Enterprise Associates, Grotech Ventures, Valhalla Partners, Harbert Venture Partners HIG Ventures, Edison Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Intersouth Partners, SJF Ventures, Carilion Health Systems, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, and Alpha Natural Resources. For more information, please visit www.citgapfunds.org.
Source: CIT GAP Funds Named Virginia’s Most Active Investor by CB Insights
