Indianapolis venture firm raises $100 million in funding

The Indianapolis-based startup High Alpha has secured $100 million in funding that company heads say will be used to invest in software startups in Indiana and other parts of the Midwest, according to VentureBeat. Founded in 2015, High Alpha identifies as a venture studio because it balances between a standard venture capital firm and a studio incubator that creates ideas for and launches startup initiatives. High Alpha CEO Scott Dorsey told VentureBeat that interest in venture firm is growing as funding grows. “We were getting approached with frequency from large Fortune 500 companies that see an opportunity within their industry but don’t have that startup DNA,” he told VentureBeat. The report notes that High Alpha’s studio portion of the company has helped launch nearly a dozen startups since it was founded by Dorsey, who is a former marketing executive with an Indianapolis firm. In the second phase of the studio’s new fund, Dorsey said he wants to launch and fund up to another 10 startups in the area. Outside investors have put about $55 million into High Alpha’s companies to this point, according to Xconomy. Funding for High Alpha’s studio portion comes from investor Emergence Capital and the Foundry Group to the tune of $16 million. Another $85 million was put into the capital firm portion of High Alpha. “Three years ago, we pioneered the venture studio model by combining a startup studio with a venture capital fund. We are delighted with the 11 enterprise cloud companies we have co-founded and the 21 venture investments we’ve made,” Dorsey said in a statement on the company’s site. “With the support of amazing investors like Gordon Ritter from Emergence Capital, Brad Feld from Foundry Group and numerous limited partners in our venture fund, we are doubling-down on our initial vision and making sizeable investments in design, engineering, data science and corporate innovation resources.”