(L-R) Team includes Founding MP Lisa Calhoun,
GP Robin Bienfait, GP Gary Peat

ATLANTA-based Valor Ventures LLC is investing out of its Valor Ventures Fund 3 LP and now has 31 active portfolio companies, including transactions announced yesterday in Memphis-based Visalaw.ai and Atlanta-based Acuity Behavioral Health.

Valor Ventures has completed three investments thus far in 2025, and projects six to eight completed deals for the full year, General Partner Gary Peat told Venture Nashville.

Many VNC readers will recall Peat spent decades in Tennessee in roles including general partner in healthcare PE Council Capital (né Council Ventures).

Peat, 59, has been with Valor Ventures nearly five years, having been brought aboard by Founding Managing Partner Lisa Calhoun. Full VV team.

Valor Ventures expressly aims to lead Seed rounds in AI and B2B startups, but will consider co-leading a Seed round.

Its individual investments are generally in the $500K-$3MM range, with $1MM-$2MM checks most common.

Since its inception in 2016, the largest shares of the firm's lead-Seed investments have been in AI, digital health, fintech or media/adTech. It does not invest in B2C. More on deal criteria here.

The Valor Ventures team prioritizes Seed-stage dealflow from within the 16-state US Central-South zone defined by the federal government.

A partial list of 24 of the firm's 31-company portfolio is below. Of the 24 shown, 11 are based in the Atlanta area.

Valor Ventures portfolio (partial listing):

• Acuity Behavioral Health - Atlanta VVprofile
• AETOS Imaging - Atlanta VVprofile
• Allelica - Baltimore VVprofile
• Arpio- Durham VVprofile
  
• Autonoma - Auburn VVprofile
  
• CareWork - Orlando VVprofile
  
• FinQuery (fka LeaseQuery) - Atlanta VVprofile
• FirmPilot - Miami VVprofile
• Funding U - Atlanta VVprofile
• Goodfynd - District of Columbia VVprofile
• mapmycustomers - Brooklyn VVprofile
  
• ModicusPrime La Porte, Ind. VVprofile
• Physician360 - Atlanta VVprofile
• Prolog Mobile - Atlanta VVprofile
• Riderr - (Love to Ride) - Atlanta + Bristol UK VVprofile
• Sailes - Kansas City VVprofile
• Senteon - Atlanta VVprofile
• Sho.ai - Cape Girardeau, Mo. VVprofile
  
• SmartCommerce - Atlanta VVprofile
• Stemuli - Dallas VVprofile
• The Gathering Spot - Atlanta VVprofile
• Therapy IQ - Tampa VVprofile
  
• Visalaw.ai (VisaLaw Ventures Inc.) - Memphis VVprofile
• Vital4 Technologies - Atlanta VVprofile
  

Notably, some Valor Ventures team members are regularly involved with of Atlanta-based 501(c)(3) Startup Runway Foundation Inc.'s Showcase pitch series.

The Showcase series aims to support promising U.S.-headquartered businesses led by women and founders of color by introducing them to what is typically their first investors.

Mission-oriented Startup Runway was founded a year prior to formation of Valor Ventures by the abovementioned Lisa Calhoun, who remains founder and chairperson of the nonprofit's board of directors.

Peat explained that a trio of Startup Runway judges -- always including a partner from Valor Ventures and two judges from other VC firms -- have access to Startup Runway Finalists data.

That data is maintained by Startup Runway within Valor's proprietary OpenAI VIC system, which is augmented by Salesforce-APex. The VIC system and is maintained by Valor Ventures Partner Jean-Luc Vanhulst, a technologist.

Neither Valor's own data nor Startup Runway-associated data are available to other parties.

Asked about any advantages of the arrangement, Peat first first emphasized that Valor Ventures aims "to maximize returns and has no other lens. We invest without a gender or race lens."

He then continued, saying "We have way, way, way better deal flow than just about any VC in the nation of pre-seed and seed stage deals with at least one under-represented founder [each] due to (i) thousands of Startup Runway applicants at pre-seed stage, and (ii) our focus region, which has the highest density of non-white-male founders of the four U.S. Census regions. So, we end up investing in teams with at least one underrepresented founder a lot more often than the industry as a whole, like 10X+ more. We also invest in companies founded by typical white male founder team. Again, returns-focused investor, full stop."

Roughly a fourth of Valor Ventures's transactions have been with teams that have been Startup Runway finalists or winners.

Startup Runway events have thus far only been held in Georgia's Atlanta and Savannah, and once in Virginia.

Asked about Valor Ventures's outside advisors, Peat cited attorney Chris Sloan and his group within BakerDonelson in Nashville, and Atlanta-based attorneys with ReedSmith.

Read more about Valor Ventures rationale for targeting the Census South: Here and Here.

The 16 states of the US Central South are Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia.

Valor Ventures has since its inception invested in 14 Census South states. Deals based in Arkansas and Mississippi have yet to come to fruition. VNC

. last edited 0904 20 February 2025