Investor Profile: LiveOak Venture Partners — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

If your startup is headquartered in Texas, LiveOak Venture Partners funding may be the most aligned capital you can raise. Based in Austin, Texas, and founded in 2012, LiveOak Venture Partners is an early-stage firm that invests only in Texas-based technology and technology-enabled service companies. Founders asking how to get funding from LiveOak Venture Partners should understand the deal at its heart: a Texas-only, lead-investor, full-lifecycle partnership that often begins as a company's first institutional cheque.

Investment thesis

LiveOak's thesis is geographic conviction: Texas is a large, undercapitalised technology market, and world-class category leaders can be built there without relocating to the coasts. The firm partners with entrepreneurs using disruptive technologies and business models to challenge the status quo, and it leads rounds rather than following them. The founders also published an Entrepreneur's Bill of Rights.

Sectors and stages

LiveOak invests from pre-seed to Series B in technology and technology-enabled services, across sectors including enterprise software, fintech, healthcare IT, artificial intelligence, edtech and proptech. Its hunting ground is Texas's four largest technology hubs: Austin, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. The firm typically enters at the first institutional round for a Texas-headquartered company; startups based outside Texas fall outside the mandate, however strong the business.

Fund size and cheque size

LiveOak's fundraising arc is public and steadily larger. Its inaugural fund closed in 2014 at more than $109 million, followed by Fund II at $105 million in 2019, and Fund III, an oversubscribed $210 million close in November 2021 that took assets under active management to almost $500 million. First cheques typically range from $1 million to $5 million, scaling to as much as $15 million over a company's full lifecycle.

Notable portfolio

LiveOak has led investments in more than 60 Texas-based companies. The best-known is CS DISCO (listed on the New York Stock Exchange as LAW), the legal technology company whose Series A LiveOak led with a $2 million investment. Other portfolio names include Eventus, OJO Labs, AmplifAI, Homeward, Osano, TrustRadius, SchooLinks, ConverseNow, ClosingLock and Flo Recruit.

Partners

LiveOak was founded by Krishna Srinivasan, Venu Shamapant and Ben Scott, who met at Austin Ventures and brought more than 40 years of combined early-stage Texas investing experience to the firm; Scott is now partner emeritus. The current team also includes partners Mike Marcantonio and Creighton Hicks, venture partner David Stewart, and vice president Paola Retes.

Programs, credits and perks

Beyond capital, LiveOak offers portfolio jobs listings through its website, access to its Texas talent and investor network. Its programme, LiveOak Gives, raised $200,000 for nonprofits in its second annual edition in 2020. No public credits programme was identified in the sources reviewed.

How to apply for funding

No public application portal was identified for LiveOak Venture Partners, so founders should not expect a form-based process. The route is a warm introduction from a Texas founder, operator or co-investor, or a direct approach through the firm's official website, with a pitch that opens on Texas headquarters, category ambition and capital efficiency. LiveOak describes itself as boots-on-the-ground in Austin, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, so meeting the team in-market with evidence of early traction, is the strongest way to start.