Capital Factory
All Access Fund
Up to $100,000 for 1% equity, plus six months of office space and mentorship.
Overview
Record Venture Investment in 2025
Austin venture investment hit an all-time high in 2025, according to Crunchbase, led by AI, robotics, defense and deep tech. About 38% of the capital went to the five largest rounds, matching the concentration seen across US venture.
Silverton managing partner Morgan Flager called 2025 "the payoff from decades of compounding": Bay Area relocations, headquarters moves and satellite offices brought engineers and operators to Austin, and many then left to start companies.
History
Austin Ventures and Its Successor Firms
Joe Aragona and Ken DeAngelis founded Austin Ventures in 1984. Under managing partner John Thornton it managed more than $4 billion, one of the largest venture firms outside the coasts in the 1990s and 2000s. Its tenth fund, raised in the early 2010s, was its last; with mediocre early-stage returns, limited partners passed on Fund XI and the partners split into new firms.
Thornton died on March 29, 2025, at 59. Beyond venture capital he founded the Texas Tribune in 2009 and co-founded the American Journalism Project in 2019. Chris Pacitti and the team continue Elsewhere Partners.
| Firm | Founders | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Silverton Partners | Bill Wood (left Austin Ventures in 2005) | Early-stage venture |
| Tritium Partners | Phil Siegel, David Lack | Growth equity and mid-market buyouts; Fund III closed at $684M in 2023 |
| Elsewhere Partners | John Thornton, Chris Pacitti (2016) | Growth buyouts of bootstrapped B2B software companies |
| Austin Ventures (remaining) | Joe Aragona | Mid-market buyouts |
Anchor Firms
Silverton, S3 and Live Oak
Three Austin-headquartered firms have each raised multiple funds and invest heavily in Texas. Live Oak Ventures in Austin is unrelated to Canapi Ventures, the North Carolina fund once called Live Oak Ventures.
| Firm | Leadership | Funds and checks | Focus and exits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silverton Partners (2005) | Founder Bill Wood; Managing Partner Morgan Flager; Partners Kip McClanahan, Mike Dodd, Roger Chen | $950M+ across seven funds; $248M Fund VII (2022), about two-thirds in Texas; checks $500K to $5M; six to eight new deals a year | Enterprise SaaS, fintech, health tech, marketplaces, cybersecurity; 30+ acquisitions and four IPOs including SailPoint, Ping Identity and Vacasa |
| S3 Ventures (2005) | Founder Brian R. Smith (Crossroads Systems); General Partners Eric Engineer, Aaron Perman, Charlie Plauche | $1B+ across eight funds; $250M Fund VIII (December 2025); single limited partner, a family foundation; checks $500K to $15M | Business software and health care technology; exits include Alkami Technology, Live Oak Technologies (DocuSign), Favor Delivery (H-E-B), TVA Medical (Becton Dickinson) |
| Live Oak Ventures (2012) | Founding partner Krishna Srinivasan; four partners | 66 portfolio companies (early 2026); mainly Series A, some seed | Enterprise applications, fintech, infrastructure, AI; two unicorns, two IPOs, 17 acquisitions; frequent Capital Factory co-investor |
Early Stage
Capital Factory, Solo GPs and Angel Groups
Capital Factory has made nearly 2,000 investments since 2009, the most of any Texas investor according to PitchBook. Angel groups trace back to George Kozmetsky's Capital Network (1989), the region's first formal angel network; see the Kozmetsky foundation.
Capital Factory
Texas Fund and Fellowship Fund
Inflection-point investments in Texas startups, and investments in the Henry Crown Fellowship network through the Aspen Institute.
Solo GP
Active Capital
Pat Matthews's San Antonio firm backs seed and Series A B2B software across the Texas Triangle.
Fund and accelerator
Sputnik ATX
Capital and hands-on training for early-stage maker-founders.
University
Longhorn Startup Capital
Early-stage funding tied to UT's Longhorn Startup Seminar and Lab, co-taught by Joshua Baer.
Angels
Central Texas Angel Network and The Eyes of Texas Partners
CTAN descends from the Capital Network; The Eyes of Texas Partners, co-founded by Mitch Jacobson, was one of Austin's first angel groups.
Coastal Capital
Coastal Firms and Late-Stage Rounds
Coastal firms set up in Austin during the 2020 to 2022 migration. Joe Lonsdale moved 8VC's base to Austin in 2020, investing in enterprise software, biotech and defense, and Jim Breyer's Breyer Capital also opened in Austin. Y Combinator has funded more than 50 Austin-headquartered startups since 2012.
Rounds of $20 million or more still usually bring in investors from San Francisco, New York, London, Singapore or Tokyo. Lower operating costs and no state personal income tax offset some of that gap, though rising Austin costs have narrowed the advantage.
Record
Dataset Record
- Sources
- Crunchbase; PitchBook; firm websites and fund announcements (S3 Ventures, Silverton Partners, Tritium Partners); Texas Tribune
- Last verified
- Q4 2026