Phew! For companies across Maine, closing the books on 2020 will be a more cathartic process than usual. Within Maine Venture Fund’s portfolio of 30 companies, we were heartened to work with founders who persevered through immense challenges brought by the pandemic. In every case, companies adapted to the “new reality” with vigor and creativity, and many of those tough changes will no doubt prove beneficial long after the pandemic has been corralled. And while we can’t say for certain until we cross the finish line, we’re likely to see overall job growth in the portfolio compared to 2019, an astounding achievement by our portfolio companies that few would have predicted earlier in the year.
For Maine Venture Fund itself, as with many economic development organizations within the state and across the country, the beginning of the year started without incident. With the arrival of Covid-19 in the spring, MVF saw a spike of activity as companies sought cash reserves, staring over the edge of what felt like a bottomless abyss. By fall, company Boards could finally start to regain focus on a post-pandemic economy and re-invest in new strategies or sales channels accordingly. Now in late December with several vaccines on the way and nearly 20,000 Mainers having received an initial dose, 2021 has increasing promise despite the near term challenges the virus poses.
In addition to the pandemic, a resurgent Black Lives Matter movement and broader civil unrest encouraged every American to take stock of social justice issues. MVF, like many organizations, took the opportunity to reflect on our mission of creating positive impact for the people of Maine. For us, that introspection led towards updates to how we find, evaluate and invest in Maine companies in a way that further strengthened diversity, equity and inclusion as core principles.
More broadly, MVF invested in seven follow-on rounds in existing portfolio companies over the course of 2020, in addition to adding four new companies to the portfolio through first-time investments. On average, every $1 of MVF investment is matched by roughly $8 of outside capital, and we redoubled our efforts in 2020 to play a role in catalyzing that matching capital from Maine investors and also those outside of the state who recognize the growing talent and innovation here. To that end we launched a refreshed website earlier this month complete with a co-investor survey, which we hope will further advance that effort.
We also emphasized general outreach this year to ensure that Mainers across the state understand our mission and role as an economic development resource. We stepped up our presence on social media, doubling our follower bases on Facebook and LinkedIn and increasing our website visitors by nearly 50%.
While we can’t predict the journey forward, we’re as excited as ever to enter 2021 with many lessons learned and a solid playbook for functioning in a crisis, whatever the future may hold. We’re fortunate to carry out our work alongside hundreds of stakeholders, entrepreneurs, investors, volunteers and supporters across the state who share our love of Maine and who together make up the glowing light at the end of the tunnel.