Triangle-based Front Porch Venture Partners completes $20 million fundraise

Front Porch Venture Partners , a Triangle-based venture capital firm started in 2019, has raised $20 million for its second fund to invest in startups in Southeastern states.

Why it matters: The new fund is quadruple the size of Front Porch's pilot fund and adds a chunk of new capital available to Triangle startups after a year where local startup investment cratered .

Driving the news: Front Porch will use the money to invest both in other venture capital firms (like Durham-based Idea Fund Partners and Hatteras Venture Partners) as well as individual startups.

• Nikin Shah, general partner for Front Porch, said the goal is to use the money to invest in 20 different funds across the Southeast and around 25 companies.
• It's already started deploying the money, which it started raising in 2022.
• Local startups it's invested in with its first fund include CureMint, VitalFlo and Klearly.

Zoom out: The fundraise comes at a crossroads moment for the venture capital industry, with distributions from investment firms hitting lows not seen since 2009, with high interest rates slowing down the startup ecosystem across the country.

What they're saying: "I think '23 was like a hard reset that I don't think anyone anticipated, and if they did anticipate it potentially not to the level that we saw it. I mean, things got to a complete halt," Shah told Axios.

• "But I would say we're cautiously optimistic" about where things are headed, he added. "We're starting to see some of the best firms complete their fundraising efforts and there are a lot of firms raising capital" this year.