Kickstart Seed Fund, a seed investor based in Salt Lake City, is seeking to raise $20 million for a second fund that will back technology and life science companies in Utah and nearby Rocky Mountain states, according to a securities filing.
Launched in 2008, the firm raised a little over $8 million for its first fund, according to Thomson Reuters. Its sole managing director is Gavin Christensen, who wears another hat as head of early stage firm vSpring Capital’s New Mexico office.
Kickstart says it has invested to date in eighteen portfolio companies, which run the gamut from medical devices to digital media. Investments include Radiate Media, a provider of tools for connecting advertisers and local media partners, Fuze Network, a payments technology company, and Catheter Connections, developer of a capping system to reduce catheter-related infections.
Christensen founded Kickstart along with Dinesh Patel, vSpring managing director, Brian Cummings, a former head of technology commercialization at the University of Utah, and Paul Ahlstrom, a vSpring co-founder who currently serves as managing director of Alta Ventures Mexico. Of those, only Patel is currently still listed online as a member of the firm’s five-person investment committee.
Source: http://www.pehub.com/146798/utah-based-kickstart-raising-fund-ii-filing/
Author: Joanna Glasner
