Poplar Ventures today announced the final closing of its new venture capital fund, Poplar Ventures, L.P. The firm has raised a total of $22 million to invest in early growth stage cloud-based software technology companies in middle America and has completed four investments to date.
Poplar Ventures is led by its founder and Managing Partner, John Willmoth, a veteran corporate development executive and investor in numerous technology-based companies. “Having worked in or invested in growth-stage companies for most of my career, I have a special appreciation for entrepreneurs and the challenges that they face in building their companies,” said Mr. Willmoth. “A big part of my job is helping them navigate through both the growth and the inevitable setbacks that occur.”
One of the unique aspects of Poplar Ventures is its investor base. The limited partners of the fund are individuals who have extensive business experience and have demonstrated success in a wide variety of industries. Within this group are seven Investment Advisory Partners who have direct experience with scaling growth-stage technology-based companies and who are available to Poplar Ventures to assist with fund efforts.
Today, Poplar Ventures is pleased to announce and acknowledge the contribution of these seven individuals:
• Vik Chadha, Founder and CEO of Scalable Ventures, a firm investing in and creating innovative software products; Co-founder of GlowTouch Technologies and Backupify;
• Michael Davis, Co-founder and CEO of Appriss; two-time winner of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and 2019 inductee to the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame;
• Chris Joseph, CEO of Enablon and three-time successful entrepreneur; experience leading global software platforms and has served on multiple private equity-backed boards;
• Jim Lacy, President & COO of Collective Medical; experienced CFO, General Counsel, M&A, and product focused executive working within high growth enterprise companies;
• Greg Langdon, Experienced technology executive with a background in corporate and product strategy; advisor and mentor to over 100 companies as part of three accelerator programs;
• Chris Schremser, CTO of Waystar and predecessor Zirmed for two decades; experience as the lead architect of a technology platform operating in a complex regulatory environment; and
• Doug Smith, Senior Microsoft executive leading customer transformation to cloud services; experience with A.I., data center modernization, IoT, cloud application development, and DevOps.
“I am grateful to have such an accomplished group of investors and specifically the Investment Advisory Partners,” said Mr. Willmoth. “They give me insights into technology trends, help me evaluate new investment opportunities, and, most importantly, share their hard-earned business experience with Poplar Ventures portfolio company executives.”
Media Contact: Erin Jones erin@inmodemarketing.com
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Poplar Ventures seeks to invest in companies in middle America delivering recurring revenue cloud-based software services in growing market segments. The firm has made four investments to date: SkuVault (www.skuvault.com); PERQ (www.perq.com); Podchaser (www.podchaser.com); and Switcher (www.switcherstudio.com). For additional information, visit www.poplarventures.com. For inquiries, please contact info@poplarventures.com.