Matthew McCooe

Matt leads Connecticut Innovations’ venture capital funds, loans and programs to support entrepreneurs and startups. CI has over 225 portfolio companies, 12 direct venture fund investments (fund of funds) and $500M in assets under management. Matt has more than 25 years’ experience in venture capital investing, sales, marketing and product management. Matt represents CI on various tech company boards, several venture funds and serves as Chairman of the CT Biosciences $200MM Investment Fund. Matt’s CI investments with successful exits include Sema4, Budderfly, LogicSource, Tantalus Systems, Greenworks Lending and CoolIT Systems, all 9 figure IPOs or acquisitions.

Matt comes to CI from Chart Venture Partners (CVP), a NYC technology venture capital firm. At CVP, Matt led investments, sat on boards of directors and played an operating role in turnarounds for several highly successful high-growth technology companies. Matt was one of the earliest investors in PacStar, which sold for $400M, and CoolIT Systems, whose revenues have increased more than 100X (nine figures plus) since investment. Prior to CVP, Matt was the managing director of Columbia University Science and Technology Ventures (STV), where he helped launch a portfolio of spinout companies, as well as the deployment of STV’s profitable seed fund. During his tenure, 11 companies went public or were acquired by publicly traded companies.

Prior to Columbia, Matt co-founded Eureka Networks, a communications and application software organization that was sold for $110M. Earlier in his career, he managed product development, sales and marketing, and new product roll-outs for two Fortune 500 companies, Becton Dickinson and MCI. As a national sales leader at MCI, he rose to become marketing manager. Matt launched MCI’s flagship voice and data products for Avantel, the company’s joint venture in Latin America. Both Eureka and Avantel’s revenues reached $100M+.

Matt earned an MBA from Columbia University and a BA from Boston College. Upon graduation, Matt worked for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and then co-founded a startup beverage company. Matt serves as a technology and business reviewer for the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense, where he identifies and helps emerging technology companies meet the government’s requirements. He also served on the Board of Greenwich Associates, one of Wall Street’s older and more prestigious advisory firms, through to their successful exit to S&P.