Sorenson Ventures Secures over $110 Million to Expand Investment Portfolio

MENLO PARK, Calif., and SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sorensen Ventures today announced that it has closed its first fund with related investment entities totaling over $110 million, above its target of $100 million. Investors include foundations, endowments and an insurance company, as well as corporate, family office and individual investors. Sorenson Ventures is a dedicated fund focused on early-stage enterprise software and security investments. The fund leverages the analytic and operational capabilities of Sorenson Capital, a growth equity and buyout firm founded in 2002, with more than $1 billion in capital under management.

Sorenson Ventures is led by Ken Elefant and Rob Rueckert, longtime venture investors with deep operating experience. To date, the Silicon Valley-based fund has invested in eight early-stage companies and plans to expand its portfolio to 15 to 20 total investments. These companies include: CyCognito, a cyber security startup; Botkeeper, an automated bookkeeping software company; Paperspace, a machine-learning platform; NS8, an anti-fraud company; Openpath, a provider of a mobile-enabled cloud-based access control system; Octarine, which offers security for cloud-native applications; Trizic, a platform engineered to deliver cutting edge, end-to-end digital wealth management; and a stealth analytics company.

"Our focus on helping entrepreneurs by proactively working with them beyond a simple investment has already been resonating with high quality startups," said Elefant, managing director of Sorenson Ventures. "We roll up our sleeves and seek to add value by making connections to customers, helping teams recruit key talent and assisting them in finding product-market fit. We become their true partners, like early-stage venture funds used to do in the early 90s."

Besides their operational experience, Elefant and Rueckert both have extensive institutional and corporate investment experience. This rich background brings unique value to early-stage entrepreneurs, especially those who are looking for corporate partnerships. The two first met in the Kauffman Fellows Program, then worked together at Intel Capital.

"We are product-first investors and are attracted to entrepreneurs who use their engineering vision to change markets, which you will see evidence of in our first eight investments," Elefant said. "Most of our founders are repeat entrepreneurs with strong domain expertise. We believe we bring something different to the table, and as such, we've been fortunate to syndicate our initial investments with firms such as Lightspeed, Battery Ventures, Emergence, Accel and Greycroft, among many other high-quality firms. We're going to continue to invest in innovative software and security companies that have impressive intellectual property and management teams with the vision to execute."

About Sorenson Ventures
Sorenson Ventures is a Silicon Valley and Utah-based early-stage venture capital fund focused on enterprise software and security investments. Sorenson Ventures has more than $100 million in capital under management. The fund is managed by Ken Elefant and Rob Rueckert, who have both operating experience and venture experience at Battery Ventures, Lightspeed and Intel Capital. The principals of the fund are especially known for making value add connections to Global 2000 customers and have partnered with outstanding entrepreneurs through the years.

About Sorenson Capital
Sorenson Capital (www.sorensoncapital.com) is a private equity firm that makes middle-market buyout and growth equity investments. Sorenson Capital has more than $1 billion in capital under management and typically makes investments of $10 to $40 million in companies with unique strategic positions. Sorenson Capital is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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SOURCE Sorensen Ventures