Venture capital firms operate in the financial industry, helping startups and growing companies secure funding for their initiatives. These firms, such as Venture First, Chrysalis Ventures, and Render Capital, provide critical financial services, including funding for mergers, acquisitions, equity and debt capital structuring, and innovative projects. Companies seeking venture capital typically demonstrate promising potential for high return on investment. Many firms in Kentucky focus on businesses that create enduring value using technology or those that target large global markets. In recent years, an increasing number of these firms have also begun supporting early-stage entrepreneurs who historically have lacked access to capital, hinting at a diversified future for the industry.


Top 22 venture capital firms in Kentucky

1. Venture First

Venture First is a capital and financial services provider that supports companies with asymmetric potential. They offer a wide range of services including mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt capital structuring, CFO guidance, financial modeling, and more.


2. Chrysalis Ventures

Chrysalis Ventures is an investment firm based in Louisville, KY that partners with management teams across Mid-America to build businesses with enduring value through technology and active collaboration.


3. Render Capital

Render Capital is an investment firm that makes equity, debt, and alternative investments into innovative startups that target large markets with global applications and have experienced advisory teams. They also offer a variety of programs, including first-dollar grants, to help early-stage black and brown entrepreneurs who lack capital access due to systemic inequality.


4. Access Ventures

  • Website: accessventures.org
  • Headquarters: Louisville, Kentucky, United States
  • Founded: 2013
  • Headcount: 1-10
  • Latest funding type: Grant
  • LinkedIn

Access Ventures is an investment firm that focuses on building resilient and inclusive communities by investing in high-potential, underrepresented entrepreneurs. Their portfolio includes scalable businesses that prioritize social and environmental impact alongside financial returns.


5. Keyhorse Capital

  • Website: keyhorse.vc
  • Headquarters: All Over, Kentucky, United States
  • Founded: 2002
  • Headcount: 1-10
  • LinkedIn

Keyhorse Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in seed and early stage startups in Kentucky. They support entrepreneurs building innovative and technology-enabled products with a strong founding team, seeking financial risk and the potential for economic growth.


6. Forecastr

  • Website: forecastr.co
  • Headquarters: Louisville, Kentucky, United States
  • Founded: 2018
  • Headcount: 1-10
  • Latest funding type: Seed
  • LinkedIn

Forecastr.co is an online financial modeling platform that provides revenue forecasting, expense budgeting, data integrations, investor reporting, runway management, and exit simulations.


7. Connetic Ventures

Connetic Ventures is a company that operates in the Financial Services industry. It employs 6-10 people and has $1M-$5M of revenue. The company is headquartered in Covington, Kentucky.


8. Bluegrass Angels

Bluegrass Angels is a volunteer-led group of skilled and experienced business leaders who fund and mentor innovative, high-tech Kentucky startups. They are dedicated to investing in Kentucky start-up businesses, creating new jobs in the commonwealth, and providing strong financial returns to their members.


9. Flyover Future

Flyover Future is a news platform that focuses on providing highlights of innovation and startups in Midwest with weekly reports and virtual & in-person events to build connections and community between startups, technologists, universities, industry, and regional innovation ecosystems.


10. GoThereFM

Middle Tech is a media company that offers news, entertainment, and educational content to advance the business ecosystem in the Midwest.


11. Value Buddy

Value Buddy offers customizable and compliant business valuation reports to SBA lenders and startups seeking funding. They utilize data from millions of private business transactions to provide objective and accurate assessments.


12. Sheltowee Business Network LLC

Sheltowee Business Network LLC is a company devoted to creating a community that collaborates on building businesses. The Sheltowee Business Network is made up of Mentors, Experts, Entrepreneurs and Partners who have a common vision for growing entrepreneurial businesses and having an impact on their local communities.


13. Regional Business & Innovation Center

KY Innovation is a platform that supports entrepreneurs and high-tech startups by providing access to funding, resources, and programs across the state of Kentucky.


14. iVisionary

iVisionary is a strategic investment firm operating across multiple industries, with a team of seasoned operators committed to developing successful enterprises through strategic planning and investments.


15. Paul Graham

Paul Graham is a technology startup investor and founder of Y Combinator. His website provides articles and essays on startup investment, entrepreneurship, and technology.


16. Hayes Lending Solutions, LLC

Hayes Lending Solutions is a commercial finance company providing a variety of lending products and services such as business financing, contract financing, equipment leasing and loans, and unsecured business lines of credit.


17. Louisville Future

Louisville Future covers local innovation and entrepreneurship, sharing untold stories about what's fueling Louisville's economic future and highlighting the people behind it.


18. Writing Services Online

No clear information about writing servicesonline.com is available on the website.


19. KBD

KBD provides strategic brand and design consulting for emerging enterprise companies and the firms who fund them. For technology companies, KBD works with senior management to refine their story and execute design for customer and investor-facing materials, including pitchbooks, websites, sales materials, and trade show graphics. For venture and private equity firms, KBD helps GPs define their firm&s;s differentiators to entrepreneurs and parlay that message into websites, reverse pitches, and LP Day materials.


20. Sheltowee Network LLC

  • Website: sheltowee.com
  • Headquarters: Louisville, Kentucky, United States
  • Founded: 2019
  • Headcount: 1-10
  • LinkedIn

Sheltowee Network LLC is an investment firm that focuses on building an ecosystem of investors and entrepreneurs committed to investing in innovative companies that make the world a better place.


21. The Kinglander

  • Website: kinglander.com
  • Headquarters: Lexington, Kentucky, United States
  • Headcount: 1-10

Founded in 1988, The Kinglander Company has been a multi-faceted real estate brokerage and investment firm with an emphasis on Commercial and Residential Sales, Property Management, Re/Development, and investment analysis. The Kinglander Company advises property owners, buyers, sellers, and lenders in all types of real estate transactions, including sales, purchases, exchanges, leasing, financing, construction, and re/development of retail, office, commercial, multi-family residential, industrial, and agricultural properties. At The Kinglander Company we focus on finding opportunity. In today's distressed market, our attention is on adding significant value in every transaction. Whether it is rehabbing a distressed property or working on a retail sale, we see opportunity when other agencies may see burden. The Kinglander Company is a boutique, commercial real estate, investment company headquartered in Lexington, Ky with 33 years of experience in sales, property management, investment assets, re/development and value-add acquisitions. Future-focused, business-grounded advice and thoughtful solutions to help you structure, negotiate and close the most complicated real estate and finance deals.Large or Small. We work with the full range of participants in the market and with every class of asset.


22. Marshall Ventures

Marshall Ventures manages a venture fund for early-stage start-ups and also offers business advisory services.


Want to find more venture capital firms?


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