SOSV looks to raise $250m to help early-stage start-ups

Venture capital firm employs 95 people globally, including a small number in Cork city

Bill Liao, managing partner, and Sean O’Sullivan, founder and managing partner: SOSV was last year ranked as the fourth-largest and most prolific accelerator investor in the world. Photograph: Barry Cronin
Bill Liao, managing partner, and Sean O’Sullivan, founder and managing partner: SOSV was last year ranked as the fourth-largest and most prolific accelerator investor in the world. Photograph: Barry Cronin

SOSV, a venture capital firm set up by Sean O'Sullivan, is looking to raise $250 million (€212 million) for a fourth investment fund.

The firm, which is led locally by CoderDojo co-founder Bill Liao, last week filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, DC for the new fund, which will be used to invest in more early-stage start-ups.

SOSV was last year ranked as the fourth-largest and most prolific accelerator investor in the world. It closed its third $150 million round in early 2017.

The VC, which was previously known as SOSVentures, was established by Mr O’Sullivan, a co-founder of mapping software company MapInfo and an early investor in Netflix. It has funded over 700 start-ups since it was set up in 1993 and is currently funding over 150 firms a year through its numerous accelerators, which cover areas such as hardware, software biology, food, robotics, medical devices, transportation and green energy.

The fund, which has $300 million in assets under management, employs 95 people globally, including a small number in Cork city.

Relocated

SOSV last month relocated its RebelBio life sciences accelerator programme to London from Cork due to a lack of incentives for investors and a lack of support from partners beyond Enterprise Ireland.

Prior to its decision to relocate RebelBio, SOSV had cancelled a planned second annual instalment of the programme and withdrew plans to establish a European version of Food-X, for the same reasons.

Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr O'Sullivan said: "We have been able to expand our operations globally on the back of the start-ups' tremendous progress in the fields of hardware, where SOSV's HAX programme dominates, and in life sciences, where SOSV's IndieBio and RebelBio programmes are the two leading programmes for first-time entrepreneurs in the world."

He added that the company had also benefited from its Chinaccelerator programme , from which BitMEX, seen as one of the world's most advanced Bitcoin derivatives exchanges, graduated.

Game development

Other companies in the SOSV portfolio include Memphis Meats, a San Francisco-based start-up developing meat grown from animal cells, and Harmonix, a leading independent game development studios, with products such as Guitar Hero.

The RebelBio programme also introduced the world to a number of innovative start-ups that have made news headlines across the globe. These include Perfect Day, a company developing a product that uses bioengineered yeast to produce real milk protein. The former Cork-based start-up recently raised $25 million.

“Every year we parse through the more than 4,000 applications we get to be part of our accelerators to come up with the top 150 start-ups we believe we can help most. It’s great work and the 95 people who work for SOSV globally love what we do,” said Mr O’Sullivan.

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor is a former Irish Times business journalist