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Investment Firm to Raise $50 Million to Grow Companies
Yet another Atlanta firm is prepping to plow millions of dollars into the next generation of tech companies.
Atlanta-based Buckhead Investment Partners, LLC will launch a $50 million dollar venture capital fund, just three years after raising its first fund.
PlayOn! Sports Raises $7 Million
An Atlanta firm — consider it the ESPN of high school sports — has scored $7.2 million to expand its geographic footprint and enter the white-hot mobile market.
PlayOn Sports, which bills itself as the largest producer and distributor of high school sports content over television and the Internet, covers more than 5,000 high school championships across 30 sports.
The BIP Investment Team Announces the Sale of its Interest in Vendormate Inc. Generating a 6.6x Cash-on-Cash Return to Investors
Atlanta, GA, ( January 12, 2011 ) - The BIP Investment Team, managers of BIP Opportunities Fund, announces the sale of its interest in a pre fund investment, Vendormate Inc., to Primus Capital, a Cleveland based private equity firm. The sale generated a 6.6x gross cash-on-cash return in 3.5 years for the BIP team and its investors.
"From the start, Vendormate presented an excellent investment opportunity," said Mark Buffington, partner at BIP Opportunities Fund. "The management team's operating prowess, the strength of Vendormate's products and the vast need for effective vendor management systems in the healthcare industry combined to make Vendormate one of the fastest-growing software companies in its industry."
PlayON! Sports Raises $2.8 Million in Series B Financing
ATLANTA, GA ( August 2, 2010 ) - Atlanta based 2080 Media, Inc., which operates as PlayON! Sports, today announced the completion of a Series B round of financing totaling $2.8 million. New investor Hamilton Ventures joined the round with existing investors Buckhead Investment Partners (BIP Opportunities Fund, LP) and Imlay Investments. PlayON! will use the funding to support its rapid growth and leadership position in the high school sports category.
Through partnerships with state high school athletic associations and individual high schools within those states, PlayON! Sports is the nation's leader in producing, distributing, and monetizing video content in the high school category. PlayON! provides value to its partners through rights management, high quality video production, television and Internet content distribution, and incremental revenue creation.
BIP Opportunities Fund Invests in Tropical Smoothie Cafe
-- Capital infusion to finance buy-back of targeted franchised territories and to fuel franchise growth --
Atlanta, GA, ( May 17, 2010 ) – BIP Opportunities Fund (BIP) announced a $4.4 million growth capital investment into Tropical Smoothie Café (TSC) enabling the company to accelerate its franchise development efforts. The BIP investment will allow TSC to begin the ‘buy-back’ of certain franchised territories operated by area developers providing those franchisees a direct link to TSC’s corporate office support. In addition, the capital infusion will allow TSC to invest in new technologies, personnel and operational infrastructure to significantly ramp up their franchise sales and support efforts.
Buckhead Investment Partners Raising $30M Fund
Atlanta-based Buckhead Investment Partners LLC. is raising an up to $30 million venture fund, hoping to capitalize on tumbling corporate valuations. BIP Opportunities Fund will invest in early-stage firms in the technology, specialty finance, clean tech, media, franchising and health-care sectors. BIP plans to do 18 to 25 deals, investing $500,000 to $4 million in each, Partner Mark Buffington said.
The new pool of money comes at a time when VC bucks are hard to find. The number of U.S. venture firms raising new funds in the third quarter tumbled about 29 percent compared with the same period a year ago, according to the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters.
Atlanta's venture firms have had better fundraising luck in recent months. In the fall, TechOperators LLC launched a $30 million fund, raised from the partners' money and wealthy individuals. Arcapita Ventures, meanwhile, plans to raise a $400 million fund this year by tapping Bahrain-based parent Arcapita Bank and a group of Middle East institutional investors, corporations and individuals.
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