Draper Triangle’s Ann Arbor office spreads the seed capital

 

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2015 VENTURE CAPITAL ANN ARBOR Draper Triangle Ventures opened its Michigan office in Ann Arbor a year ago, and the venture capital firm is off to a fast start. The Pittsburgh-based firm has made investments in two Ann Arbor-based startups over the last year. The first was in Amplifinity, which makes referral software, in early 2014. Draper Triangle Ventures also recently sunk money into Pixel Velocity, a image processing and data analytics startup. “A person can make and manage two investments per year,” says Jonathan Murray, managing director of Draper Triangle Ventures’ Ann Arbor office. “I’ll make two investments this year, and Pixel Velocity is one of them.” Draper Triangle Ventures has more than $200 million under management across three funds. Its latest investment fund was set to raise more than $100 million. The venture capital firm invests in early stage tech ventures, such as software and IT startups. Murray is Draper Triangle Ventures’ lone representative in Michigan. The firm has its main office in Ann Arbor and another satellite location in downtown Detroit. Murray expects to make one more investment in a local startup this year but that number could grow. “I have a long list (of potential startups to invest in),” Murray says. “There are a lot of very good prospects on it. It could change from two investments to three investments if the right opportunity comes along.”