Looking Back: 2022 Year in Review

By Joe Powers, Managing Director, Maine Venture Fund

First, a debt of gratitude for all of the hard-working leaders of high growth startup companies in Maine, and your supportive families. You create an outsized impact on the Maine economy, making life better for your employees, customers, partners, and the Maine public. The Maine Venture Fund staff wakes up each morning excited to play our small part in your journey.

In looking back over the year, as these December newsletters have wont to do, I’m proud of the work Maine Venture Fund accomplished with our three full-time team members, six contractors and 11 highly accomplished volunteer Board members. While the MVF Board made what I believe to be wise investment decisions on behalf of Mainers, we also increased the scope of our offerings and set the table for further expanding our impact in 2023.

This year we were fortunate that our Board Chair, Dr. Brien Walton, enlisted for a second year at the helm while Peter DelGreco stepped up to the Vice Chair role in the wake of Claire Deselle’s great service over the past year. We had two Board members, John Murray and Tom Dunne, move on from MVF after each dedicating seven years of expertise and guidance, and we welcomed two dynamic new Board members in their stead, Peter Handy, CEO of Bristol Seafoods, and Malinda Gagnon, CEO of Uprise Partners.

My predecessor in the Managing Director Role, John Burns, formally closed his MVF chapter and moved on to a newly created role at University of Maine as Director of Corporate Engagement.

My colleague Nina Scheepers, a Bowdoin graduate and Unum alumna, has been an absolutely tremendous asset to MVF in her first full year with us. This month she was promoted to Principal in recognition of her full set of responsibilities across diligence, deal negotiation and post-investment company management where she serves on 10 different Boards in the MVF Observer role. Nina and I are both lucky to have Terri Wark, our Office Operations Manager, holding down the fort behind the scenes, as she has adroitly done since the Fund’s inception nearly 25 years ago. 

We were also proud and excited to welcome eight new innovative, Maine-based portfolio companies: Circa Labs, Senscio Systems, Good To Go, Tanbark, Solve Finance, Bookclubs, Accelera and Alakazam, producing dehydrated food for outdoor enthusiasts, breakthrough medical devices for cerebral palsy patients and immersive web digital tools for content creators, to name just a few.

In the second half of the year we rolled out a “microfund” offering (investments in the $25K-$50K range) to pre-revenue companies. This now runs in parallel with our “core” investment program ($100K-$300K checks) and is meant to widen our aperture to include earlier stage companies and provide a better pathway to growth and future core funding if needed.

Overall, MVF deployed a total of $2.7M into Maine-based companies in the calendar year of 2022, up 32% over the prior year. This included $1.2M in follow-on funding for companies we had previously supported. For every dollar invested by Maine Venture Fund, we helped catalyze nearly $20 in investment by co-investors both within the state (Maine Angels, Coastal Ventures, Maine Technology Institute (MTI), Opus Ventures) and beyond (MooDoos Investments, SustainVC, Punchbowl, York.ie, Wyss Foundation, 3dot6 Ventures, FreshTracks Capital, 6ixth Event, and many more funds and individuals).

Job count in the MVF portfolio (one important metric by which we measure impact) grew measurably over the past year as companies continue to hire and scale despite macroeconomic uncertainty. More broadly, we added a new Impact page on our website this year to convey how MVF defines and measures the social benefit of our work.

We established formal partnerships with organizations across the state to both improve our visibility in the midcoast and central Maine regions and also strengthen our Southern Maine presence. Upstart Maine, Dirigo Labs, and The Roux Institute at Northeastern University in Bangor, Waterville and Portland, respectively, are key resources for Maine entrepreneurs and we’re humbled to be working more closely with each. Through our Roux Institute partnership we made a commitment to invest $750K into the Techstars accelerator graduate companies over the next three years and we’re ahead of schedule on that front.

We were busy with MVF-hosted events as well. Nina architected the first annual Maine Startup Challenge in October, which is a statewide business plan competition for all ages. We held a successful gathering at The Roux Institute, generously sponsored by MTI, to announce finalists and winners. In November, we followed that with our annual End of Year Portfolio Recognition Event. After a remote format for the previous two years, we were happy to be back in person at the beloved Harraseeket Inn in Freeport, where we recognized several portfolio companies for their extraordinary effort and performance throughout the year. In addition to welcoming the aforementioned new companies to the portfolio, we also awarded the following companies:

Grit Award: American Unagi; Acceleration Award: Pumpspotting; John F Burns Integrity Award: Coursestorm. This last award was new, and will be given each year in perpetuity to recognize John’s legacy of integrity and service in building MVF from the ground up. Congratulations again to this year’s winners!

A highlight to the session was keynote speaker and Maine Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Heather Johnson, who shared her view of Maine’s challenges and opportunities looking ahead into an uncertain 2023. One bright spot was the fact that Maine is seeing a measurable influx of workers in the wake of Covid, which our state desperately needs in order to fuel the growth promised by the burgeoning startup community both within the MVF portfolio and beyond.

In December, we were proud of two MVF portfolio companies who received the Governor’s Award for Business Excellence. MedRhythms and Atlantic Sea Farms were recognized at an intimate reception at the Blaine House in Augusta with Governor Mills congratulating both teams on the excellent work they do in the state.

There were a host of other initiatives this year, including a more robust marketing effort and web presence, investment in professional development through Leadership Maine, statutory improvements and more, all of which helped in our constant pursuit of increasing our “impact efficiency.”

In closing, we’re thankful for the opportunity to work alongside so many dynamic people (both the doers and supporters) in our mission of accelerating high growth companies in Maine. As 2022 draws to a close we’re busy adding our final touches to the 2023 strategic plan, which has an ambitious set of activities that I look forward to reporting to you next year…

Happy Holidays from all of us at Maine Venture Fund!

About Maine Venture Fund

Maine Venture Fund invests in dynamic businesses that have the potential for significant growth and impact in Maine. For more information, visit maineventurefund.com. 

Inquiries:
Terri Wark
Maine Venture Fund
(207) 924.3800
terri@maineventurefund.com