This $300 million VC fund is not in Silicon Valley

Move over Silicon Valley, Atlanta is emerging as one of the largest tech hubs in the U.S.

Panoramic Ventures recently launched one of the largest funds ever by a venture firm in the Southeast. The $300 million Atlanta-based VC is dedicated to investing in Black, women and minority entrepreneurs who are often overlooked when seeking funding. The fund is a partnership between tech entrepreneur and investor Paul Judge and BIP Capital.

Atlanta has “all the right ingredients” to build the next generation of tech companies, Judge told Yahoo Finance Live. “Atlanta is such a special city because of the overlap of colleges, corporations, and culture that's here. There's over 30 of the Fortune 1000 that are headquartered here, and then as you expand that to Nashville, and Miami, and Birmingham, the Southeast has been on a tear lately and it's really time for a fund to help fuel this next phase of growth."

Panoramic Ventures invests in high-beta tech companies at all stages, from the seed level to more mature companies that are trying to scale their business. It's also funded a number of companies that have been spinouts of university research.

“Universities spend over $80 billion a year developing great technology," said Judge, who has invested in over 60 tech startups and co-founded companies including the security firm Pindrop and the consumer Wi-Fi company Luma Home, which was bought by a division of Newell Corp in 2018 (NWL). "And too often it never leaves the research lab and makes its way to a commercial environment. And so companies that we funded, like [home automation company] Oculogix, are things that were born in a research lab and now they're living in the real world helping us solve problems for real people.”

Judge, who is also co-founder and partner at the Atlanta-based incubation center TechSquare Labs and sits on the investment committee of the Softbank Opportunity Fund, believes there is a disconnect between where venture capital is being raised and the general startup community.

“Even though over 40% of the U.S. population is in the Southeast and Midwest, it receives less than 14% of the overall VC funding,” he said.

“Diversity, both gender diversity and racial diversity are so key, because women receive less than 3% of VC funding today, Blacks receive less than 1%," Judge said. "But all of these great minds have the ability to solve tomorrow's problems and build tomorrow's great companies so when you start off in an environment like Atlanta in the Southeast that's already naturally diverse, then you end up with more diverse entrepreneurs walking in the door.”

Judge said having a diverse team also serves to eliminate “even implicit bias that might exist" in the funding process for entrepreneurs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way fundraising happens, said Judge, making it less about being “in the room where it happens” and more about connecting remotely — which he believes has leveled the playing field like never before.

Traditionally the VC community was "about who you know. If you didn't go to the right school or you're not in the right network it's more difficult.” Judge said Panoramic Ventures is working to change that and give "more people access to the opportunity that high growth tech funding and tech companies create."

Alexis Christoforous is an anchor for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @AlexisTVNews.