Valmiki Capital Announces Partnership with New Orleans-based Landing Zone

Just two months after Valmiki Capital launched Valmiki 504 in New Orleans, the New York-based asset management company announced a partnership with Landing Zone. Valmiki 504 CEO Peggy Babin and NOLABA CEO Quentin Messer talk about how this will impact the New Orleans startup scene.

Valmiki Capital Announces Partnership with New Orleans-based Landing Zone

NEW ORLEANS, LA & NEW YORK, NY. March 31st 2016 — Valmiki Capital Management LP, a New York-based asset management company, announced that it is forming a partnership with Landing Zone through Valmiki’s New Orleans venture capital subsidiary, Valmiki 504 LLC. Landing Zone is a pioneering entrepreneurial workspace founded by Robert Armbruster, a US Naval Academy graduate and Iraq War veteran. Together with its affiliated veterans’ business accelerator Vetlaunch, Landing Zone helps launch and scale fundable businesses.

Peggy Babin, CEO of Valmiki 504 said, “We are thrilled to bring to New Orleans Valmiki’s well-established investment process of partnering with business accelerators on the ground to source and nurture emerging companies. It is a model that has proved successful in de-risking early stage private investment and will be tremendously helpful to the NOLA startup ecosystem.”

Valmiki’s New Orleans offices will be located in Landing Zone’s co-working space and will be immersed in Landing Zone’s startup community. Bob Armbruster said, “The physical presence of the Valmiki team and the capital from its funds will be integral to helping startups in the accelerator program become truly fundable and scalable. In addition, Valmiki brings an even more valuable resource – their network of affiliated startup incubators across a number of industries.”

Quentin L. Messer, Jr., president and CEO of the New Orleans Business Alliance added, “In just two months since its formation, Valmiki 504 is already making a significant contribution to the New Orleans entrepreneurial landscape. Making capital more accessible to startups forms a significant part of the work Louisiana Economic Development, GNO Inc. and NOLABA are doing to ensure a solid platform for our entrepreneurs’ growth to the next phase. It is particularly gratifying to see Valmiki 504 supporting our veterans as they enter new careers and continue their contributions to our community and the nation.”

The partners also announced that Valmiki has invested in a new Landing Zone incubated startup which is currently in stealth mode and will launch operations in 2017. The new company is expected to employ over 150 veterans in high-paying full-time jobs within three years of launch. This startup will benefit from the expertise of two of Valmiki’s New York-based industry incubators and exemplifies the Valmiki model of sourcing industry expertise from across its network of incubators to help its portfolio companies. Valmiki expects this venture to be the first of a number of companies funded from the Landing Zone partnership.

For further information please contact Peggy Babin of Valmiki Capital at peggy.babin@valmikicapital.com or Robert Armbruster of Landing Zone at rarmbruster@lznola.org.

Find the press release on Marketwired.com.