Next Frontier Capital adds new Partner in preparation for close of second Fund

BOZEMAN, Mont., Dec. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Next Frontier Capital is pleased to announce the addition of Les Craig to the partnership. 

"We could not be more excited to welcome Les to the Next Frontier Capital team," said Will Price, Founder and General Partner at Next Frontier Capital. "He comes to us with a career defined by excellence and service, with military, intelligence community, university, and entrepreneurial experience."

A West Point graduate, Les served as a Ranger Platoon leader in the US Army, as a technical operations officer at the CIA, and is a two-time company founder with a strong passion for entrepreneurship. Most recently, he served as the Executive Director of Montana State University's Innovation Campus as well as the Director of MSU's Blackstone Launchpad. Les turned MSU's LaunchPad into one of the most successful Blackstone LaunchPad programs in the country; and, in less than 16 months, he successfully built a partnership between a private developer, the MSU Office of Research and Economic Development, and the MSU Alumni Foundation, to develop a 42-acre Research Park in Bozeman, focused on technology and research commercialization.

Les' primary role at Next Frontier Capital will be to drive deal flow, facilitate new deal diligence, and help provide portfolio company oversight.

"The opportunity to work for Next Frontier Capital is an exciting step in my professional career and my personal journey to build a life for my family in Montana," said Les. "Creating and developing entrepreneurial programing at Montana State University was an experience I will always treasure; however, this opportunity is a testament to the gaining momentum across our entrepreneurial ecosystem. I look forward to the potential to leverage the network and my experience to provide our portfolio companies with access to new talent, customers, and capital."

Growing up in Erie, Pennsylvania, Les first visited Montana when he was thirteen. He moved to Montana in 2015 with his wife, Anne Meree, and three children as the result of MSU's national search to hire a Director for the Blackstone LaunchPad. Since February of 2015, Les led MSU's Blackstone programming, where he passionately mentored and encouraged hundreds of students, alumni, and faculty to start companies. In Summer 2016, Les received funding from the Small Business Administration to launch 406 Labs, Montana's first accelerator program. 

Prior to moving to Montana, Les was one of the co-founders of Baltimore-based RedOwl Analytics, a cyber-security company focused on mitigating insider threat risk in regulated industries; and The Twenty, a data science services company based out of Bethesda, Maryland. RedOwl was acquired by Forcepoint in August 2017.

Next Frontier Capital, Montana's only venture capital firm, raised a $21 million dollar fund in 2015 and has invested in ten companies to date. Nine of those companies are Montana related. Despite Montana's strong history and tradition of entrepreneurship, in addition to high university and commercial research activity, the state has been historically undercapitalized. This trend is beginning to shift as every dollar invested over the past two years by NFC's first fund has attracted over $5 of additional capital from outside of the state. 

NFC's Fund I hasn't just provided access to capital, it has also helped to create high-tech and high paying jobs. The companies invested in by NFC have created 81 jobs in Montana since 2015 with over $8.6 million in annual compensation for those new employees. NFC's second fund, which is likely to close in Q1 of 2018, is expected to be over $30 million and will be invested in mostly Montana technology companies with innovative intellectual property, demonstrated market traction, and strong founding teams. Similar to the first Fund, Fund II will serve as a trusted local syndicate to partner with non-Montana venture capital firms. Fund II will also consider non-Montana based companies on a selective basis.

"Expanding the Next Frontier team is key as we approach the next critical phase of our growth. Our recent raise of Fund II mirrors the rapid acceleration of great, high growth Montana technology ventures," said General Partner Richard Harjes. "I've gotten to know Les' work with the University and in the local community, and the time is right for him to join our team as we aggressively approach this next phase of development providing support and capital for Montana start-ups."

About Next Frontier Capital

Next Frontier Capital partners with mission-driven, talented entrepreneurs to build Montana technology companies of national impact, utility and value. Founded in 2015, the Firm is backed by a well-diversified pool of investors, endowments, foundations, and executives from the world's top technology and financial firms, who join us in recognizing the region's extraordinary growth in technology deal flow.

The first fund has made ten investments to date: SiteOneTherapeutics, Submittable, Clearas, Quiq, Orbital Shift, Phoenix Labs, Blackmore Sensors and Analytics, IronCore Labs, OppSource, and Remix Labs. The Fund has attracted co-investment from leading firms, and first time MT investors, such as Venrock, True Ventures, Amgen Ventures, Millennium Technology Value Partners, and others, thereby quintupling the amount of capital available to Montana founders.

Next Frontier Capital is based in Bozeman, MT. More information is available at www.nextfrontiercapital.com

SOURCE Next Frontier Capital