The word capital can refer to either geographic areas including the seat of government, or to “any form of wealth capable of being employed in the production of more wealth.” I
n the second definition, it’s money or the equivalent of funds used in business.
Taking a small business to the next level often involves securing funding. The metropolitan DC area of Northern Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia have a number of local and locally-investing organizations.
Here are some of the organizations backing local companies & startups:
- Active Angel Investors (website | portfolio) – Vienna, Virginia – part of New Vantage Group and is mentioned in this August 2009 New York Times article
- Amplifier Ventures (website | portfolio) – McLean, VA; led by Jonathan Aberman
- Columbia Capital (website | portfolio) – Alexandria, VA & Waltham, MA
- Core Capital (website | portfolio) – Washington, DC
- Digital Power Capital (website) – Arlington, VA & Connecticut
- The Grosvenor Funds (website | portfolio) – Washington, DC & Greenwich, CT
- Grotech (website) – Vienna, VA and Hunt Valley, MD
- Launchbox Digital (website | Twitter | portfolio) – Washington, DC
- New Enterprise Associates (website) – Offices in Baltimore, Maryland; Chevy Chase, Maryland; and Menlo, California
- Nextpoint Partners (website)) – Washington, DC
- Novak Biddle Venture Partners (website) – Bethesda, MD – “over $580 million under management” investing in the “$100,000 to $10,000,000” range
- Telecommunications Development Fund (website) – Washington DC
- Valhalla Partners (website | portfolio) – Vienna, VA – has a useful resources page
- Washington VC (website | portfolio) – Washington, DC
Added after original post (thanks to Nicholas Tolson, founder of DeGeeked and FitFeud)
- JMI Equity (website | portfolio) – Baltimore, MD
- Redshift Ventures (website | portfolio) – Chevy Chase, MD & Fairfax, VA
There are also more local investors listed on Crossmine.
We have additional information to work into this post which could not be formatted when it was published. And there are more investor-related organizations on the list on the site below:
- 5 milestones to reach before raising venture capital (VentureBeat)
- Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (MAVA) members list
Some reading related to investors & pitching can be found on our Resources page and in the article below:
Use the comments to provide other local resources, and your experiences with the DC, VA, MD investor community.
The video for this post is from rocksters Pink Floyd (official site) – “Money” recorded live in 1994 at P.U.L.S.E (Earls Court, London, in 1994)
The video is about minutes long
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