Huron River Ventures closes on $11M fund

Huron River Ventures has closed on its first investment fund worth $11 million. The downtown Ann Arbor-based venture capital firm specializes in clean-tech investments in the energy, transportation infrastructure and agricultural fields. Tim Streit and Ryan Waddington launched the venture capital firm in 2011. The pair have raised $6 million from the state of Michigan, a couple of local institutions including DTE Energy and fewer than 50 private investors. "We are less than 30 percent deployed," says Streit, managing partner of Huron River Ventures. "We have significant capital resources from our existing portfolio to help them with their growth." Among Huron River Ventures' initial investments are include SideCar Technologies, University of Michigan spin-out Ambiq Micro, Ann Arbor-based OptoAtmospherics, Ann Arbor-based FarmLogs, Root3 Technologies and Ann Arbor-based Covaron Advanced Materials. The firm has closed one deal last week, which is plans to announce soon. Streit expects to close on another 1-2 more deals before the end of the year. Huron River Ventures has a staff of two people and a stable of independent contractors and interns. It has offices in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids. Source: Tim Streit, managing partner of Huron River Ventures Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.