Our History
Seedfunders, LLC, was launched in St Petersburg in 2018 by Dave Chitester as a small angel investment group with 4 members. The concept quickly caught on as it filled a niche in the investment marketplace. Membership rapidly grew to more than 20 partners the first year as the firm closed a number of investments in scalable technology startups. Simultaneously, Dennis Pape teamed up with Dave and launched Seedfunders Orlando in 2019. Subsequently, in 2022, Dave and his wife, Kathleen, moved to Miami to launch Seedfunders Miami.
Seedfunders is the only funding entity in Florida that targets startups with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) but little or no revenue. Our focus on scalable technology allows us to identify unique concepts that are ready to enter the marketplace and implement a sales and marketing plan to scale revenue. Once proof of concept is attained and revenue starts to rise, we help them secure follow-on funding from larger investors with enough funding to enter the growth stage.
Today, the Seedfunders group of companies has made almost 50 investments in 30 portfolio companies. Additionally, we launched the Seedfunders Opportunity Fund to provide the first “friends and family” capital to black entrepreneurs and that fund now has 3 portfolio companies. A number of our portfolio companies have raised capital at valuations over 10 times higher than that of our original investment. With over 70 partners throughout the state, we are paving the way for the funding of Florida pre or early revenue scalable technology startups to launch their MVP and/or scale revenue on their way to success.
