Marc Averitt, the managing director of Laguna Beach-based Okapi Venture Capital LLC, says his firm plans to invest in eight to 10 companies a year indefinitely, with a majority of them in Southern California.
Okapi invests in seed and early-stage technology-based companies in California with a particular emphasis on Southern California startups in the greater Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego regions.
“Okapi’s goals are to continue to back amazing founders out to solve big problems with innovative solutions,” Averitt said. He co-founded the company in 2005, and had the financial backing of several of OC’s largest technology companies at the time, including Conexant Systems Inc., Western Digital Corp., Edwards Lifesciences Corp., and Advanced Medical Optics.
Okapi was founded on the idea of discovering the area’s next Edwards or Western Digital and it appears to have done so; Averitt said he was an investor in CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: CRWD), the cybersecurity company that was founded in Irvine and soared in its public debut earlier this month (see story, page 1). The company saw its share price double to more than $70 and a $14.5 billion market cap after its initial public offering on June 12. The Business Journal estimates that Okapi made a more than 30 times return on its investment.
Okapi lowered its OC investments by 76% last year, but only dropped two spots to No. 5 on the Business Journal’s June 3 list of VC firms making local deals.
“We truly believe that Southern California has all the raw materials necessary to be a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem and is well positioned eventually to surpass Silicon Valley in venture investments for several reasons,” the company said.
Averitt, remains optimistic about Orange County’s prospects.
“I think you will continue to see more enterprise software companies launch from or relocate to OC,” he said via email. “OC is already strong in cybersecurity and will continue to get stronger.”
Orange County is the home of cybersecurity company Cylance, now known as BlackBerry Cylance, and CrowdStrike was founded in Irvine before moving its headquarters north to Sunnyvale.
Averitt sees tech hubs developing differently with various strong points.
“I don’t think any region should try to ‘be’ Silicon Valley,” he says “I think regions should be and become the best versions of themselves.”
