Atento Capital is unusual by any measure.
The firm, affiliated with the George Kaiser Family Foundation, is based out of Tulsa, Okla., and it’s one of only a handful of venture capital funds focused on investing in companies outside the coasts in the middle of the country. That is, the early-stage startups that aren’t in San Francisco, New York City, or, as of recently, Miami.
But Atento looks different than other venture firms, too. Three of Atento’s five senior investors are women and people of color, as well as a majority of the rest of the firm. A core tenet of Atento is to be what venture capital often isn’t: inclusive. For the firm, that means open-door (and open-bar) DJ parties the first Friday of every month. It’s striving to meet with founders in pairs—so investors can check one another to guarantee they are leaving behind the VC-jargon during pitch meetings. It means investing in emerging general partners like Forum Ventures or Visible Hands. It means investing in founders who have been overlooked for some reason or another—whether because of where they live, what they look like, or the problems they are trying to solve.
Atento has been investing off the GKFF balance sheet for approximately three years, deploying $128 million into a portfolio of 49 companies and 24 other VC funds. Now, Atento has raised $100 million for a new fund from its sole LP—$20 million for pre-seed investments and $80 million for early-stage and fund-of-fund investments.
Atento’s first vintage fund will offer legitimacy. But the more alluring feature is the new compensation model. Where most of the team had been paid on salary and bonus previously, nine of Atento’s team members will now have carry in the fund. As I wrote today in a piece for Fortune:
This is transformational for team members like Josephine Nelms, Director of Operations at Atento, who grew up in a single-mother home in public housing in Tulsa. Nelms is still paying off debt from putting herself through college, and says she has worked multiple jobs her whole life: from selling chronicles in public housing, to doing hair in middle school. Now, she says, her children will start out much further ahead than she could.
“For my kiddos, the possibilities are endless,” Nelms says. “We’re talking about what college you want to go to; what do you want to do in your future? What type of business do you want to have now?”
“She’s my inspiration,” Michael Basch, cofounder of Atento, told me. “It makes me proud that she’s a partner at Atento Capital and will have carry in that fund. That’s what this is all about. I’m most proud of that.”
You can read the full piece here.
The final hours of Bob Lee…The death of Cash App creator Bob Lee shook the city of San Francisco—and the whole tech industry. It led to a myriad of finger-pointing by venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, who blamed his gruesome stabbing on liberal policies and homelessness. But the man who allegedly stabbed Lee was no stranger, prosecutors say. Read more here.
See you tomorrow,
Jessica Mathews
Twitter: @jessicakmathews
Email: jessica.mathews@fortune.com
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Jackson Fordyce curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
VENTURE DEALS
- Energy Dome, a Milan-based energy storage company, raised €40 million ($44.15 million) in Series B funding co-led by Eni Next and Neva SGR.
- Therini Bio, a San Francisco-based inflammatory neurodegenerative and retinal disease biotech company, raised $36 million in Series A funding co-led by Dementia Discovery Fund, MRL Ventures Fund, Sanofi Ventures, and SV Health Investors’ Impact Medicine Fund.
- TympaHealth, a London-based hearing assessment and diagnostic solution platform, raised $23 million in Series A funding led by Octopus Ventures.
- Axoni, a New York-based data synchronization technology and financial market infrastructure provider, raised $20 million in funding. EJF Ventures led the round and was joined by Laurion Capital Management, Communitas Capital, and others.
- Relay, a Raleigh, N.C.-based cloud platform for frontline teams, raised $13 million in Series A funding from Sovereign's Capital, Wind River Ventures, and others.
- Ctrl, a London- and Tel Aviv-based workspace automation platform, raised $9 million in funding. LocalGlobe and Earlybird led the round and were joined by Dig Ventures, Jibe Ventures, and others.
- TinyTap, a Tel Aviv-based educational gaming platform, raised $8.5 million in funding. Sequoia China, Liberty City Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Shima Capital, Polygon, GameFi Ventures, and others invested in the round.
- AirOps, a Miami-based A.I. deployment company, raised $7 million in seed funding. Wing VC led the round and was joined by Founder Collective, XFund, Village Global, Apollo Projects, and Lachy Groom.
- Ansa, a San Francisco-based digital wallet infrastructure platform, raised $5.4 million in seed funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by Box Group, Wischoff Ventures, Cambrian Ventures, The Fintech Fund, Susa Ventures, and others.
- AaDya Security, a Detroit-based cybersecurity software company, raised $5 million in Series A funding. Left Lane Capital led the round and was joined by 645 Ventures, Firebrand Ventures, Gaingels, and Invest Detroit.
- POSH, a New York-based live experiences management and monetization platform, raised $5 million in seed funding. Companyon Ventures and EPIC Ventures co-led the round and were joined by Cameron Dallas, Day One Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Joshua Browder, and others.
- Plumery, an Amsterdam-based digital banking experience platform, raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Headline and Better Tomorrow Ventures co-led the round and were joined by Seedcamp, Cocoa Ventures, and other angels.
- Amboss Technologies, a Portland, Ore.-based data analytics provider for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, raised $4 million in seed funding. Stillmark led the round and was joined by Valor Equity Partners and Draper Associates.
- Operant, a San Francisco-based runtime application protection platform, raised $3 million in seed funding led by Felicis.
- WunderGraph, a Miami-based backend framework platform for frontend development, raised $3 million in seed funding led by Aspenwood Ventures.
- Dori, an Atlanta-based generative-A.I. platform for private market transactions, raised $2 million in seed funding. Counterpart Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Service Provider Capital, and others.
- Teahouse Finance, a Taiwan-based decentralized asset management and strategy platform provider, raised $2 million in funding from AppWorks.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Celerity Consulting Group, backed by Hastings Equity Partners, acquired Clear Path, an Auburn, Calif.-based gas and electric utilities consultant. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Great Hill Partners acquired a majority stake in Fusion Risk Management, a Chicago-based risk management software and services company, from Vista Equity Partners. Per the terms of the deal, Vista Equity Partners, Catalyst Investors, and Level Equity Management will retain a minority stake. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OTHER
- Honeywell agreed to acquire Compressor Controls Corporation, a Des Moines, Iowa-based turbomachinery train optimization services provider, from INDICOR for $670 million.
- Yahoo acquired Wagr, a Nashville-based betting app. Financial terms were not disclosed.
SPAC
- OpSec Group, a Lancaster, Pa.-based brand protection solutions and intellectual property management company, agreed to go public via a merger with Investcorp Europe Acquisition Corp I, a SPAC. The deal is valued at $426 million.
FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS
- Greycroft, a New York-based venture capital firm, raised more than $1 billion across two funds focused on early- and growth-stage enterprise and consumer businesses.
PEOPLE
- Castlelake, a Minneapolis-based alternative investment firm, appointed Evan Carruthers and Rory O’Neill to co-CEO and promoted Yen-Wah Lam to chief people officer and president.
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