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Women-led Early Stage VC Fund Good Growth Capital Announces Over-subscribed Third Fund

Good Growth Capital will deploy pre-seed through Series B funding to companies disrupting health tech, green tech and other sectors.

Good Growth Capital has announced the successful raise of its oversubscribed third fund at over $100M.  The majority women- and minority-owned firm is known for investing early in complex technologies that are yielding top returns. Good Growth Capital’s first fund, a 2017 vintage, is tracking to earn top-decile returns. The firm, as an impact investor, focuses on companies that generate the highest possible return and meet pressing societal needs. This new fund makes Good Growth Capital the largest venture capital fund in South Carolina history and one of the largest early-stage funds in the Southeast. 

Good Growth Capital Managing Partners (Right to left): Carolyne LaSala Holtorf, David Mendez, Maureen Stancik Boyce, Amy Salzhauer and John Osborne.
Good Growth Capital Managing Partners (Right to left): Carolyne LaSala Holtorf, David Mendez, Maureen Stancik Boyce, Amy Salzhauer and John Osborne.

Diversity at Good Growth and its portfolio companies

Good Growth Capital invests in pre-seed through Series B investments in biomedical and health sciences, green tech, data, and physical and material sciences.  Sixty percent of Good Growth’s Managing Partners are female and twenty percent are Latino. The firm reports more than 75 percent of Good Growth Capital’s portfolio is led by founders from diverse backgrounds. “This is the future of venture capital,” says Good Growth Managing Partner David Mendez.  “We don’t need to give these founders any preference, just a level playing field. Their fantastic growth and returns speak for themselves.”

Good Growth has four Managing Partners in Charleston, SC and one in Boston, MA. Its team of active venture partners and advisors have started another 30+ companies and are world leaders in technology commercialization.

The leadership team

“When Maureen Stancik Boyce and I started the fund, our goal was to create both the kind of fund we would have wanted to work with as entrepreneurs and also the kind of fund we wanted to invest in ourselves. We work hard for our portfolio companies. We love what we do,” said Good Growth Capital Managing Partner and Founder Amy Salzhauer. Boyce and Salzhauer had previously started multiple tech companies together and have worked together for 23 years. “Our oversubscribed fund is an exciting validation for our business model and for our strategy. Traditional venture capital funds often fail to identify the kind of entrepreneurs we work with. Many in our first two funds have become market leaders.”

“It’s the best job, helping these tech founders who are working hard to solve world problems,” said Maureen Stancik Boyce, Ph.D., Good Growth Capital Managing Partner and Founder. “The five of us Managing Partners have all started companies, and thrive working with complex tech startups.”

Managing Partners Carolyne LaSala and John Osborne round out Good Growth’s leadership team, which focuses on both operational and technical expertise.  Together the Managing Partners have started 18 entities worth billions of dollars; Mendez and Osborne have also started and run accelerator programs. LaSala led and launched iTunes Europe, then led and launched the AppStore at Apple.

Investment targets

“We aim to collaborate across industries, to find and support the best multi-disciplinary startups, regardless of their origins,” says LaSala. The firm begins investing at the earliest stages and credits its capacity for growing early-stage companies that require deep technical and operational expertise for much of its success. 

Lita Nelsen, retired director of MIT’s Technology Licensing Office and now licensing consultant and advisor to GGC, understands the value of this “As everyone knows there is a real shortage for funding early-stage companies in bio and other tech emerging from university research. Good Growth’s first funds were small but launched dozens of great companies. This larger fund will enable them to do even more, thereby helping to fill an important niche in the entrepreneurial environment.”

About Good Growth Capital

Good Growth Capital is a majority women- and minority-managed early-stage venture capital firm. It has offices in Charleston, SC and Boston, MA. It funds transformative start-ups in sectors including health tech, green tech and data sciences. Good Growth Capital and its funds meet both ESG and UNSDG impact goals. Learn more about our strategy and our portfolio at our website: https://www.goodgrowthvc.com/

For female entrepreneurs looking for funding resources, read our collection of grants and awards on Lioness.

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