Oregon Venture Fund (OVF) has recently participated in a significant $20 million Series B funding round for Conveyor, a startup focused on optimising business processes through artificial intelligence. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Conveyor is relatively new to OVF, which has yet to include the company in its portfolio listings. Despite Conveyor’s lack of visibility on LinkedIn regarding a Pacific Northwest presence, the interest from OVF appears to signify potential connections to the region.
Conveyor’s mission revolves around enhancing interactions between buyers and vendors via AI-driven solutions. The company aims to automate much of the routine communication typically handled by humans, allowing individuals to concentrate on building meaningful relationships. In a statement reflecting on this funding milestone, a company representative expressed, “We’ve been lucky to work with investors who’ve believed in this problem from day one, and we’re excited to have SignalFire and Oregon Venture Fund join the group and get behind what we’re building.”
The capital raised will primarily be allocated towards two key areas: product development and distribution. Specifically, Conveyor plans to enhance its AI capabilities, developing more agentic workflows to efficiently address edge cases and prioritising accuracy. This strategic direction underscores a commitment to delivering a robust product while expanding access to a wider range of teams.
OVF’s engagement with Conveyor comes on the heels of its broader investment strategy initiated with the launch of the Business Oregon Venture Fund (BOVF) earlier this year, a new $10 million initiative targeting early-stage startups across Oregon. This fund, supported by the State of Oregon and the U.S. Treasury’s SSBCI programme, underscores OVF’s ambition to bolster the entrepreneurial landscape within the region, focusing on establishing solid ownership positions in promising ventures.
Founded in 2007, OVF is a venture capital firm that has cultivated a diverse portfolio, including well-known companies such as Salt & Straw and Puppet Labs. With a network of 180 institutional and angel investors, the firm assesses up to 300 business plans annually, selecting only a handful for investment. However, in a landscape where venture capital funding has fluctuated dramatically—peaking at $2.8 billion in 2021 and dropping to approximately $586 million in 2024—OVF’s continued investment in emerging companies like Conveyor and Platformr signals resilience within Oregon’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
In another recent highlight, Platformr, a CloudOps platform focused on AWS automation, secured $2.5 million in Seed funding led by OVF, illustrating the fund’s continued enthusiasm for technology-driven startups. Additionally, Portland startup Hydrolix raised $35 million in a Series B round supported by OVF, further reflecting the firm’s commitment to fostering innovative solutions across various sectors, including cloud operations and water treatment.
Despite the overall decline in early-stage funding since the pandemic, recent trends indicate a possible recovery, particularly in seed-stage financings, which reached $114 million in 2024—representing a marked increase from prior years. This landscape presents a complex backdrop against which funds like OVF are seeking to navigate, supporting early-stage innovators while anticipating shifts in market dynamics.
As the venture capital environment in Oregon continues to evolve, OVF’s pivotal role in nurturing startups like Conveyor could signal a promising trajectory for the region’s tech and entrepreneurial sectors.
Source: Noah Wire Services
