John Garel

Founded in 2000, Envest Ventures is a private equity fund located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The firm invests in privately-held companies throughout the East Coast, with a weighting toward Virginia-based companies. Since inception, Envest has created three limited partnership funds totaling $162 million in capital. Envest's first fund, Envest Ventures I, invested in 13 companies, and made its final investment in April 2000. In March 2004, Envest announced the closing of its second fund, Envest II, a $48.3 million fund. Envest III closed a third fund of $72.7 million in May 2008. Envest III has since made 6 portfolio investments. Envest initially invests between $2.5 million to $7.5 million in a single portfolio company. Envest invests in a relatively broad range of basic industries including healthcare, franchising, manufacturing, software, retail, business services and non-revolutionary technologies.