Dr. Paul Judge, serial entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of TechSquare Labs, has spent nearly 20 years developing and launching new tech companies in Atlanta. Yesterday, it was announced that he and Marik Buffington, CEO of Atlanta’s BIP Capital, have partnered to form Panoramic Ventures.
Panoramic Ventures is an Atlanta based venture capital firm that focuses on diverse founders and university startups located in the Southeast, Midwest, and other regions across the country where high-potential companies are often overlooked. The firm plans to open new doors for overlooked founders, giving more entrepreneurs access to capital to build leading tech companies.
The goal for its first fund is $300 million, according to the partners, and will focus on funding startups from their seed stage to Series B.
Judge, a Morehouse and Georgia Tech grad, is also the co-founder and executive chairman of Pindrop, co-founder of Purewire (acquired by Barracuda), and CTO of CipherTrust (acquired by Secure Computing).
He recognizes that “the thing that’s missing is a meaningful venture capital firm that’s anchored here and that’s really active across multiple stages.”
“[If we] put our efforts together we could make a new firm that really fills that gap and is there to support everything that Atlanta and the Southeast really deserves to be over the next decade,” Judge added. “The $300 million size is really intentional because we can be active at the seed stage but we can also lead Series As and lead Series Bs.”
“After years of building companies as an entrepreneur and angel investor, I felt that I could have a greater impact by working with more founders, which is why we created Panoramic Ventures,” said Judge. “As a minority who has built companies outside of the traditional tech hubs, I know what it is like to be an overlooked founder. From Atlanta to Miami, from the Southeast to the Midwest, Panoramic wants to back promising founders and extend capital opportunities that may not have previously existed.”
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