Mar 4, 2023

Meet the Top VCs in Dallas-Fort Worth, According to Business Insider From left: Bryan Chamber, Lauren Tyra, Rayyan Islam, and David Evans. If you’ve founded a North Texas startup, chances are you’d love to meet a venture capitalist. But where to look, and how to find the right match for your business? You’re in luck: Business Insider just provided a handy guide with its list of “The Top 45 VCs in Texas,” and four of the VCs on the list are based in Dallas-Fort Worth. The publication asked other VCs from across the country who to know in Texas. The VCs who made the grade are featured with a brief overview of their notable investments, the type of startups they invest in, and why they made the list. Locally, the Top 45 list includes: Bryan Chambers, president and co-founder of Capital Factory. Chambers works out of Dallas and is also a founding member of the nonprofit Venture Dallas , which hosts an annual venture conference. Capital Factory also has a presence in Austin and Houston. The VC invests in early-stage tech startups in Texas in sectors like software, healthcare, aerospace, and robotics. Its notable investments include Colossal Biosciences, Icon, Aceable, ZenBusiness, Apptronik, WP Engine, Cart.com, Intuitive Machines, Syzygy, and Keen Technologies . Chambers and co-founder Joshua Baer “are strong proponents of Texas’ startup scene and offer their own past experiences as founders to the entrepreneurs they advise,” Business Insider writes. Last May, Capital Factory announced plans to open its Center for Health Innovation at Pegasus Park in Dallas by end of 2023. Lauren Tyra, chief scientific officer of Dallas-based Green Park & Golf Ventures. With a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UT Southwestern Medical Center, Tyra brought a deep knowledge of the healthcare space to Green Park & Golf in 2017. Starting out at the firm as a scientist, she was appointed chief scientific officer in 2020. Notable investments include Genomenon, Prima-Temp, and Gregor Diagnostics. Dallas Innovates spoke with Tyra for our fourth annual magazine, Dallas Innovates 2021: The Resilience Issue. Rayyan Islam, co-founder and general partner of Dallas’ 8090 Industries. “Islam cofounded 8090 Industries alongside industrial- and energy-sector leaders to invest and support technologies that could help decarbonize every industrial sector,” Business Insider writes. Notable investments include Cemvita, Infinium, Oklo, Quaise, and Cirv. Check sizes range from $500,000 to $10 million. Islam told BI that he likes founders who can “prove that their breakthrough works and can engineer a real economic solution that helps industrial incumbents navigate the energy transition.” David Evans, managing partner of Dallas-based Sentiero Ventures. Evans and his two Sentiero co-founders “are technologists and entrepreneurs themselves who have successfully scaled and sold technology companies and bring a deep well of knowledge to their due-diligence process,” Business Insider writes. Notable investments include Data Sentinel, Geminus.AI, and SingleKey. “When we evaluate an opportunity, we really understand how both the product and the business will scale,” Evans told BI. In June 2021, Sentiero made the first investment from its then-$10 million AI-focused fund . In terms of development, “AI now is where the web was in the mid- to late-’90s,” Sentiero Ventures’ David Evans recently said in an interview on how Dallas-Fort Worth is becoming a hotbed for artificial intelligence technology. Evans. whose firm invests in AI-enabled SaaS companies, says the field has accelerated in the last five years because computer “horsepower” has exploded. To see the full list of Business Insider’s Top 45 VCs in Texas, go here . Get on the list. Dallas Innovates, every day. Sign up to keep your eye on what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day. One quick signup, and you’re done. R E A D   N E X T Dallas-based financial services giant Comerica Bank has named Trent Sampson, Jerry Collazo, and Adriana Najera to its newly formed South Dallas Business Banking Team that is led by Group Manager Derric Hicks. "As the leading bank for business, it is imperative that we raise expectations in all the communities where we live and serve," Comerica Bank Dallas Market President Amanda Mahaney said in a statement. "For many years, we have provided retail banking services and made community investments in the South Dallas community. Now, Derric and his team will focus on finding access to capital solutions for underserved entrepreneurs and… TAGS: