Osage Ventures just closed its fourth fund at $90 million

Bala Cynwyd-based venture firm Osage Ventures announced Tuesday it had closed the lid on its OVP IV fund (aka fund four) at $90 million.

The venture firm — which began raising capital for the fund in late 2015 — has already made five deals from the instrument, including two deals in Philly soon to be disclosed according to Managing Partner Nate Lentz. Osage’s most recent move was joining Sidecar’s $11 million Series C, which gives you a good idea of the investment company’s focus: post-revenue business-to-business (B2B) software companies on the East Coast.

Lentz points to Sidecar as an example of why Philly’s been the home to some of Osage’s flagship deals.

“[Sidecar] has a lot of angel money here, but they’ve also brought two funds that have never done any investing here before,” Lentz told Technical.ly. “It’s a sign that people are recognizing that there’s something to look at in Philly and that’s what I believe the trend is.” (He’s talking about Boston-based Ascent Venture Partners and Richmind, Va.-based Harbert Growth Partners.)

Osage has also invested in PeopleLinx (which was recently acquired) and InstaMed.

“80 percent of our deals are between New York and Washington D.C.,” Lentz said.

Lentz, who’s on PACT’s Board of Directors, is unsurprisingly bullish on Philly. He remembers the venture capital arena in Philly hitting “a low point a couple of years ago” but sees a resurgence of venture firms in the area, listing VCs like MissionOG, Rittenhouse Ventures and Sashi Reddi’s SRI Capital as examples.

“Ben Franklin Technology Partners is a major catalyst for that,” said Lentz, giving yet another prop to local investors. “I can’t think of a deal that we’ve done in Southeast Pennsylvania where they [Ben Franklin] haven’t been with us. “I think the ecosystem is building and we’re in the second generation of a cycle here.”