Venture capital firm LOUD set to grow a more diversified strategy set

Recently promoting Nishad Parmar to chief investment officer in the firm’s Chicago office, LOUD Capital has grown to more than $50 million and expects to double its AUM in the next 12 months. The firm’s Pride Fund 1 is a venture fund dedicated to supporting LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and startups that have direct benefit in the community, but the firm has had a number of small-business focused investment strategies over the years. Parmar last month was promoted to senior partner and CIO and he is heading up LOUD’s new diversified alternatives investments strategy. Foley & Lardner are legal partners to the firm’s Chicago office. The strategy offers access to a hybrid package of alternative investment assets, including small business asset-based lending to life settlements and early stage equity. Rather than employing a seven- to nine -year time horizon for returns, the fund allows investors to have consistent ROI throughout the investment cycle. “Our approach at LOUD has always been to find what works best for our investors, portfolio companies and team,” Parmar said in a statement. “Our expansion offers a unique approach to venture through alternative investments, which have proven to be more resilient than public markets to economic winds.” Parmar has led LOUD’s cash advance and asset-based financing division since 2016 and has processed $30 million in transactions across more than 350 deals. The lending in these small business transactions have an average turnaround of 36 hours and more than half (52%) of the companies in which LOUD invests are reinvestments whose businesses rely on a steady injection of capital for sustained growth, according to officials. The Chicago office opened in 2018 and the company has supported key investments such as: Breakwater Chicago, a floating entertainment destination; fetal health monitoring tool Raydiant Oximetry, which was founded in Chicago; and IoT cybersecurity tool Xaptum. The new strategy enhances the team’s existing ethical approach and “Venture for People” philosophy.For example, LOUD partnered in late 2019 with the Chicago Bulls basketball team for a venture competition. Receiving a $50,000 equity investment, the winner was startup Honest Game, which is a tool to help student-athletes and schools keep track of college athletic eligibility. Since launching in 2015, LOUD has managed three early stage venture funds, raised special purpose funding to more than a dozen high-growth ventures and deployed private growth capital to hundreds of small business across the U.S. from its headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.

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