Investment and strategic advisory firm Brown Advisory is teaming up with network-driven venture capital firm, NextGen Venture Partners (NextGen).The NextGen team will officially join their new Brown Advisory colleagues in offices across the United States from 22 February.
NextGen was founded by investment industry veterans Dan Mindus and Brett Gibson as a means to bring their Washington, DC-based network together to make more informed and successful venture capital investments. Today, the firm has a national network of over 900 entrepreneurs and investors that source, analyse, support and invest in startup companies.
The growth of their organisation has been driven primarily by the confidence and trust they have nurtured with the entrepreneurs in whom they have invested. “At the core of our model is a belief that a large, distributed group of founders, leaders and investors – participating part time – can source, evaluate and support investments in a way that adds significant value,” Mindus says.
Brown Advisory, founded in 1993 within Alex, Brown & Sons, began investing in private equity for clients in 1997. Twenty years later, the firm’s clients have committed over USD1.7 billion to private funds and investments.
The combination reflects the value that both Brown Advisory and NextGen place on supporting the next generation of entrepreneurialism. Together, their focus on those building new and innovative businesses should also have a positive impact on the communities across the two firms’ footprints and beyond – an element core to each company’s mission.
“NextGen Venture Partners has built a platform that helps its venture partners and entrepreneurs create value for one another. This mutually beneficial experience is one from which we can learn, and one we hope will be meaningful for a wide range of our clients,” said Mike Hankin, chief executive officer of Brown Advisory.
Joining Brown Advisory are: Dan Mindus, Managing Partner; Brett Gibson, Managing Partner; Chris Keller, Managing Partner; Jon Bassett, Managing Partner; Lisa Cuesta, Principal; Callum Booker, Associate; and Corinne Smeriglio, Director of Operations.
There will not be any immediate change to NextGen’s venture partner platform or investment process. The integration of the two firms will start with combined operations and the co-location of colleagues in Washington, DC; Boston; New York; and Austin.
“The entrepreneurs and venture partners we serve love the concept of co-creation. Joining Brown Advisory gives all of us the opportunity to co-create the future of investing on a more dynamic, diverse and stable foundation,” says Gibson.
