Courtesy/CEI Ventures Inc.
From left, CEI Ventures Inc. Managing Director Nat Henshaw, Principal Chandler Jones and Fund Administrator Thao Duong.
March 18, 2021
After delay, CEI Ventures raises $14.8M for latest fund
Photo / Gabe Souza
Hyperlite Mountain Gear, whose Biddeford production facility is shown here, is a portfolio company of CEI Ventures Inc.
After delaying a fundraising timeline because of the pandemic, CEI Ventures Inc. wrapped up the initial closing on its latest fund earlier this month with a capital raise of $14.85 million.
The fund, which is doing business as the Good Jobs Fund, is the fifth for the venture capital arm of Brunswick-based Coastal Enterprises Inc., for a total of $60 million raised since 1996.
Funds have invested in 64 companies to date and created 2,700 new jobs in regions and with demographic populations often overlooked by traditional venture capital investors. Portfolio companies include Hyperlite Mountain Gear, in Biddeford, and Portland software company VETRO Inc.
Out of the 32 investors in the Good Jobs Fund, nine are individuals, two are foundations, four are community economic development entities and 17 are banks that CEI Ventures said were motivated in part by Community Reinvestment Act Credit.
"In many ways, we did better than expected," CEI Ventures Managing Director Nat Henshaw, who leads a three-person investment team, told Mainebiz by phone on Thursday.
Without disclosing names, he said that around 80% if the banks who invested in the fund are headquartered in Maine, and that a couple of regional and money-center banks also participated.
He also said that the two foundations who invested are based in Maine, and individual investors include successful entrepreneurs wanting to back up-and-comers.
The fund has a target of raising $25 million, and the ability to close the initial round with more than half of that amount was better than expected, he noted.
As for the fund's next steps, Henshaw said the team is conducting due diligence on three or four companies in which to potentially back.
Gear shift
The initial closing comes more than a year after the CEI Ventures team raised around $3 million in the first few months of 2020. When the pandemic hit, it pressed pause on fundraising for four months and concentrated on helping existing portfolio companies, according to Henshaw.
He noted that the Good Jobs Fund was designed in 2019, a time of low unemployment, with a focus on high-quality jobs with living wages, basic benefits and a fair and engaging workforce. That focus took on new meaning over the past year with investors.
"After the pandemic hit and the racial and economic issues were laid bare, we found our emphasis on things like health care, good jobs for all people and jobs for a diverse workforce found a ready audience with many investors," he said.
Reflecting on the takeaways of the experience, Henshaw said, "A sense of timing learned in the great recession served us well when we held off fundraising in the height of the crisis."
He cited persistence as another lesson, or keeping after it after the worst is past, adding, "Disaster struck, but investors ultimately rushed in to help address needs and capitalize on opportunity." He also said the team looks forwards to calls, emails and video conferences with new companies."
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