Sunstone Management, a diversified capital management and investment firm based in Long Beach, California, has launched a new fund to facilitate the growth of startups participating in the Long Beach Accelerator program.
The fund, designated LBA Sunstone Fund I, will offer investors an opportunity to aid exciting early-stage companies while also generating attractive returns on investment.
The Long Beach Accelerator program, the first of its kind in the City of Long Beach, is a public-private partnership between Sunstone Management, the City of Long Beach and California State University Long Beach. Expected to welcome its first cohort this fall, the accelerator will prepare early-stage tech startups to secure funding as well as provide valuable resources, including physical space, for participants. LBA Sunstone Fund I will provide critical early funding specifically for the accelerator’s most promising entrepreneurs.
“The Long Beach Accelerator program will provide entrepreneurs with the space and mentorship they need to develop,” adds John Keisler, the city’s director of economic development. “It is incredibly exciting that Long Beach will now have a place where technology entrepreneurs can exist and grow, and we are excited by the announcement of this new fund to offer crucial financial support to the accelerator’s startups.”
In addition to helping young startups develop capacity and providing technical assistance with seed-round funding and a network of investors to identify and finance opportunities with capacity to scale, the Long Beach Accelerator is expected to strengthen the area’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and attract top talent, and has already attracted one of the nation’s most successful technology startup angel investors.
Leading structural angel investment firm Seraph Group will launch and manage the Seraph Long Beach I LP Fund, with Sunstone Management serving as a partner. The new Seraph Long Beach I LP Fund will allocate up to one-third of its resources to Long Beach Accelerator entrepreneurs upon completion of the program, while the remaining two-thirds will be designated to funding other seed round startup projects in the City of Long Beach.
“Supporting the nation’s leading early-stage startups is essential to ensuring that they thrive and grow into sound investments down the road,” says John Shen, founding partner of Sunstone Management. “We are confident that these funds will generate the desired returns for investors while simultaneously offering support for the accelerator’s participants and other promising startups in the Long Beach area.”
