New $10 million fund debuts first investment

Cortado Ventures, a new $10 million venture capital fund based in Oklahoma, has invested in its first company.

Respond Flow will receive seed funding from the firm, which is funded in part by George Kaiser's Atento Capital.

These ed investment from Cortado and Atento will enable the startup to open an office and hire development and sales roles to expand their text message marketing platform to more customers and regions. Respond Flow was part of the fourth batch of companies that participated in the Thunder Launchpad.

The Cortado Ventures fund is managed by partners Nathaniel Harding, David Woods and Mike Moradi. The fund invests in early-stage companies in a variety of Oklahoma sectors by aggregating and managing investor capital, and helps startups grow through seed funding, collaboration and mentorship. Its partners have launched the fund to build next generation companies that will bring future-ready technology jobs to the state, the firm said in a news release.

Respond Flow designed its technology to help companies use texting to communicate effectively with their customers. The company can integrate its tech with other customer relationship management applications, and provides a user-friendly, scalable solution for enterprises to communicate with current and potential customers over SMS-based text messaging.

CEO Martin Lien described Respond Flow's technology as “built to humanize your marketing.” The company will move into its new offices by June 1 and begin onboarding employees.

Cortado Ventures has already raised $2 million for its fund and has a goal to reach $10 million.