High Alpha raises $18M to launch third venture studio

Indianapolis-based High Alpha on Wednesday announced plans to launch its third venture studio after raising $18 million from repeat investors Emergence Capital of San Francisco and Foundry Group of Boulder, Colorado.

High Alpha Studio III will concentrate on funding, launching and growing enterprise cloud companies.

High Alpha uses the venture studio model to partner with entrepreneurs to conceive, launch and scale new companies, particularly software-as-a-service businesses.

Companies under the High Alpha Venture Studio umbrella are provided expertise to help the business grow, including help with branding, design, product development, engineering, human resources, sales, marketing, finance and data science.

Through its three venture studios and three capital funds, High Alpha has raised more than $260 million. The funds invest in both High Alpha Studio companies and outside business-to-business SaaS companies.

Since its founding in 2015 by tech entrepreneurs Scott Dorsey, Eric Tobias, Mike Fitzgerald and Kristian Andersen, High Alpha has launched more than 30 companies, including cloud companies Zylo, Lessonly, MetaCX, Mandolin, Casted, Socio and Bolster.

High Alpha announced its third fund, the $110 million High Alpha Capital III fund, in March.

“The venture studio is proving to be one of the most effective and efficient ways to conceive, launch and scale successful high-growth startups,” Dorsey said in written remarks. “We’re proud of the 30 companies and thousands of jobs we’ve created over the past six years, but what we’ve found most rewarding is the impact the studio model has on our co-founders.”

High Alpha said it was adding Foundry Group partner Jaclyn Freeman Hester and Emergence Capital principal Carlotta Siniscalco to its board of directors.

“Emergence Capital is excited to continue to partner with High Alpha as it solidifies its place as the leading B2B venture studio,” Siniscalco said in written comments. “We are bullish on the fact that High Alpha’s model provides opportunities for a broader range of individuals to step into entrepreneurship, a critical component for driving the next generation of enterprise software.”