Who is investing in Iowa?

Iowa capital pools, venture funds, and venture-funded businesses are everywhere. Ten years ago, a friend once said something like, if you blew up the room Dwolla launched in 2010, it would set the ecosystem back 20 years. That might have been true then, but it’s certainly no longer valid.

Searching available capital in the state

There is plenty of capital invested by entities based in Iowa. Here are some of the initial ones I discovered with either an estimate of the total fund size or a link. Some are easier to verify than others.

Techstars Iowa$21M
Grinnell College$2.9b
Next Level Ventures$90M
Curql$250M
Manchester Story$100M
ISA Ventures$22M
Innoventure$30M
Unity Point Ventures$100M
Iowa State$1.44b
University of Iowa$3.1b
Global Insurance Accelerator$21M
AAVIN Private Equity$80M
Midwest Growth Partners$40M
CareSource Iowa$2M
Mango Seed $2M
Summit Equity$10M
Plains Angels$2M
Ag Startup Engine$10M
Ag Ventures Alliance$5M
Ames Seed Capital$3M
Red Cedar Fund$10M
Rural Vitality Fund$10M
Empower The Change$200M

Billions in available capital, and I am hopeful this list will grow. If you know someone to add, please send me a DM on twitter or respond to this tweet.

This brings us to the next question about capital from outside Iowa coming into the state.

Who is investing in companies with Iowa operations?

This is an integral part of the capital-raising cycle for any company here because it shows that high-quality companies can raise capital from outside the state. That used to be a complex problem.

It’s hard to isolate exactly how much comes in from one venture fund vs. another, so I looked briefly at companies that have operations here and capital raised from funds outside the state.

These data points help us understand if outside capital is willing to invest in technology companies in Iowa or with significant operations in the state.

Roboflow

Non-Iowa InvestorsCapital Raised
Craft Ventures$22M
YCombinator
Lachy Groom
Quiet Capital

Dwolla

Non-Iowa InvestorsCapital Raised
Union Square Ventures$72M
Foundry Group
Andreessen Horowitz
Firebrand
Detroit Venture Partners
Thrive Capital
High Alpha
Ludlow Ventures
Park West

Basis Theory

Non-Iowa InvestorsCapital Raised
Kindred Ventures$17M
Slow Ventures
Ludlow Ventures
Bessemer Venture Partners
Box Group
Conversion Capital

Moov

Non-Iowa InvestorsCapital Raised
Bain Capital$32.5
Andreessen Horowitz
Canapi
RRE

Digital Diagnostics

Non-Iowa InvestorsCapital Raised
8VC$175M

Businessolver

Non-Iowa InvestorsCapital Raised
Warburg Pincus$65M

Lincoln Savings Bank

Non-Iowa InvestorsCapital Raised
Castle Creek$45M
EJF

Growers Edge

Non-Iowa InvestorsCapital Raised
Finistere Ventures$40M
Skyline Global Partners
S2G Ventures

Tractor Zoom

Non-Iowa InvestorsCapital Raised
Builders VC$11.4M
Bienville Capital
Hyde Park Angels

Based on the list above we can see hundreds of millions are going to work in companies with Iowa operations. That list alone sits at $400M+ discovered in about 15 minutes on Crunchbase, sorted by state. If we assume that only 50% of the overall raised capital came from outside the state, $200M is still a substantial amount. Since only a small number of companies are listed above, the overall invested capital is likely much higher.

There are many more questions, like how do we think about companies like Berkshire EnergyAmerican EquityHolmes Murphy, or others that fall into this search criteria?

Total Funding Amount in Iowa Companies

Iowa based businesses can clearly access capital from inside and outside the state. Early stage, late stage, all stages! That’s exciting for entrepreneurs and the state.

Disclaimer – Crunchbase data isn’t always perfect. It’s also worth noting that a company raising capital doesn’t imply any relative importance over those who do not. The availability of capital gives companies a greater diversity of options and a higher likelihood of success in this writers opinion.