Augment Ventures is off to a fast start for 2014, making two investments in clean-tech startups and laying the groundwork to make a couple more before the end of the year.
"Our
portfolio is up to five startups right now," says Sonali Vijayavargiya, founder & managing director of
Augment Ventures.
Vijayavargiya launched the venture capital firm out of Ann Arbor nearly three years ago. Augment Ventures specializes in making early investments in startups in the clean-tech/sustainability sector. Its most notable investment so far is in downtown Ann Arbor-based logistics tech firm
LLamasoft in 2012.
Augment Ventures has made two investments so far this year. Both firms, Revolights and Lumenetix, are based in California.
Lumenetix designs, manufactures and sells UL recognized color tunable LED light engines for fixture manufacturers. It is currently working with one of the Big 3 (Vijayavargiya declined to say which one) to integrate its products in the automotive sector.
Revolights is working to bring new lighting solutions to bicyclists.
"They're trying to bring 360-degree visibility to commuter bikers," Vijayavargiya says. She adds, "we are very excited about both (startups)."
Augment Ventures has also added a couple of people to its team this year, expanding it to five people. That staff is working to nail down a couple more investments before the end of this year.
"We are actively doing due diligence with five opportunities," Vijayavargiya says. "Two of those firms are Michigan-based."
Source: Sonali Vijayavargiya, founder & managing director of Augment Ventures
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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