Venture capital firm
Newark Venture Partners (NVP) is a national seed stage venture capital firm backing bold founders building B2B software solving real-world business challenges. nvp takes a thematic approach to investing, focusing on areas where they've developed a point of view based on research, trend analysis, strong industry relationships and data. Current themes include fintech, industrial, and healthtech. nvp has offices in Newark, New Jersey and Manhattan
History
Founding Story
In 2016, under the leadership of Don Katz, the Founder and Executive Chairman of Audible, the New Jersey business community rallied behind Tom Wisniewski and Dan Borok as Founding Managing Partners of newark venture partners (nvp). The vision for nvp was clear: to create a next-generation venture capital firm that would invest globally, be deeply rooted in the community, and nurture the next wave of Audible-like startups.
NVP I
As the firm's pilot fund, nvp i raised $44 million from Audible, Prudential Financial, Dun & Bradstreet and other corporate partners. During its first year, nvp also initiated an accelerator program, NVP Labs, which reviewed thousands of applications and grew a highly selective program for pre-seed and seed stage entrepreneurs before it was sunset at the start of the COVID pandemic. Key nvp i investments include MoCaFi, Seamless.ai, Mobot, and Vydia.
NVP Fund II
At the end of 2020, nvp added Vaughn Crowe as a Managing Partner. Crowe was originally a founding LP on behalf of Wesray Social, Ray Chambers Family Office, and he played a crucial role in the launch of nvp ii, which closed in 2021 at $88M, double the size of fund i. nvp built a robust network of 40+ corporations and leaders of corporations to provide insights on industry trends, real-time data from market leaders, and C-suite champions and mentors for portfolio founders. The combined experience of nvp's leadership and its unique position as seed stage investors attracted investors like Amazon, Prudential, Ford Foundation, Rutgers, Dodge Foundation, and others.
As it moved forward with nvp ii, nvp refined its model, now using a laser focus on leading or co-leading seed-stage investments for companies solving real-world business challenges using software and data. nvp takes a thematic approach to investing. They have built a point of view and have developed an expert network with a focus in fintech, industrial, and healthtech - markets where the firm has strong connections and access to data and expert insights. Key investments of NVP II include Podsights (acquired by Spotify), FleetOps, and Optimal Dynamics.
