Naples Technology Ventures Closes First Round Of NTV Frontier Fund

Naples Technology Ventures has exceeded the $30 million threshold for its new NTV Frontier Fund–on its way to $50 million–the company announced Wednesday.

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The Naples, Florida-based firm plans to invest in promising early-stage technology companies, operating under a software-as-a-service model and within the artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain, IoT, robotics and other advanced technology sectors. Companies will have already completed their platforms, have customers, and earned post-seed, pre-Series A or Series A funding, co-founder Mike Abbaei told Crunchbase News.

Abbaei and Brij Sharma started NTV in 2018 with its first fund, NTV Fund 1, which invested in 12 companies. All NTV Fund 1 investors are participating in the second fund, along with additional industry leaders, senior executives, high net worth individuals and institutional investors, Abbaei said.

“We saw a lot of interest in joining the fund, even in this economy,” Sharma said.

This time around, the pair intend to increase the investment to between 20 and 25 companies, Abbaei said. And, Abbaei and Sharma plan to have a bigger stake in companies in the new fund and be more active within the companies. While the average deal size was $500,000 for its first fund, the second fund’s deal size will be average deals of $2 million, Sharma said.

The partners will also act as lead investors on any new investment, allowing them to set the terms and get involved in the companies to help them grow, something Abbaei said is important. They will also be taking a look at the existing companies in their portfolios for new opportunities.

“If any company makes it through this economy, it must be valuable enough to invest in because it is going to need capital,” Abbaei said. “Any new companies coming out of this are going to be successful because of their potential.”

Illustration: Dom Guzman