LiveOak Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Austin, Texas, has appointed Mike Marcantonio as Principal, and Mason Rathe as Senior Associate.
Mike and Mason are the first investment professionals being added to the team outside of the three founding partners and will focus on both executing new investments and supporting the firm’s growing portfolio.
Marcantonio spent six years with Blue Heron Capital, where he made venture and growth stage investments in technology and healthcare-IT companies. He brings experience sourcing new investments, as well as extensive portfolio company support and board oversight for companies such as Tricast and WiserTogether. Prior to Blue Heron, Marcantonio spent several years with Harris Williams, where he worked on sell-side M&A engagements for middle-market companies. Earlier in his career Mike spent time at American Capital, a private equity firm.
“Mike’s extensive background in working with early stage companies and ability to nurture strong value-added relationships with entrepreneurs will be an asset to LiveOak and our portfolio companies as we look to scale the firm to the next level,” says Krishna Srinivasan, founding partner at LiveOak Venture Partners.
Rathe interned at LiveOak from the beginning of 2018 while completing his MBA at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas. Prior to business school, Mason was in the Technology and Life Sciences division of Comerica Bank, where he underwrote over USD350 million in capital commitments to early stage companies. Prior to Comerica, Rathe led business development for US Capital Partners. During his MBA, Rathe began a weekly newsletter that chronicled key developments in Austin’s startup environment and grew virally to thousands of subscribers.
“Mason has already shown terrific value-add as an intern at the firm and demonstrated strong leadership in nurturing the local startup environment with his newsletter. These team expansions underscore our intense focus on the Texas venture opportunity and the support of local entrepreneurs with resources to scale their business and reach their full potential,” adds Venu Shamapant, founding partner at LiveOak Venture Partners.
