Roo Partners – Maximize Your Potential

The right capital and growth strategy can inspire, accelerate, and keep your organization moving forward.

Roo Partners provides the insight and operator experience to build businesses by providing capital, industry expertise, and talent management for transformative companies.

Capital + Growth + Talent

Roo Partners is a unique venture capital and executive search firm bridging talent and capital.

What makes us unique is the breadth of our operator expertise and our ability to swiftly and strategically provide the optimal resources to transformative companies. Everything we do is oriented toward making your firm run at peak performance. Whether it is the leadership we place or the capital we provide, our goal is to keep your organization moving forward.

venture capital

Roo Capital supports key initiatives of early-stage businesses, by providing the capital for pre-seed, seed, Series A and Series B stage growth. We will invest in transformative companies providing sub $1M to over $25M in capital commitments.

EXECUTIVE SEARCH

From placing a CEO, CFO, CRO or CIO to building a Board of Directors, Roo Search understands that the right candidate should not only have the right experience, but should fit the firm’s culture and vision

current investments

Florence raises $35m (£28.5m) series B funding to revolutionize social care

Florence, the UK-based tech innovator for social care, announced it has raised $35 million (£28.5m) through a Series B funding round. Florence will use the investment for product expansion to support care in the UK and multiple international markets, and to expand its services beyond elderly care.

ONCHAIN STUDIOS RAISES $23M SERIES A LED BY A16Z CRYPTO TO BUILD ‘THE FUTURE OF PLAY’: CRYPTOYS

What would the concept of play look like in a web3 world? We’re about to find out. OnChain Studios, makers of Cryptoys, an NFT-native toy, gaming and entertainment universe, announced today it has closed a $23 million Series A funding round led by a16z crypto.

Our Leadership

“I’m excited to introduce to you Roo Partners, a premier venture capital and leadership advisory firm – with industry insights and an experienced team that are able to bring entrepreneurs a unique set of tools to support their journey beyond capital.”

– NATE DAPORE, CEO

Nate DaPore

CEO

As CEO and Managing Partner of Roo Partners, Nate leads the investment team and supports the executive search team executing executive searches for boards of directors, CEOs, C-suite leaders, and their direct reports in the technology and health care, markets. He brings over 20 years of experience as a venture and private equity investor, operating partner, a software expert, and entrepreneur, having founded two successful startups.

Most recently, Nate was a managing partner at Acertitude, where he launched and scaled the healthcare practice advising early stage and middle market health care and technology companies for numerous private equity firms.

Prior to Acertitude, Nate was the founder and CEO of venture-backed workforce management SaaS company PeopleMatter, serving global brands such as McDonald’s, Subway restaurants, BP, and Marriott. Earlier in his career, Nate was part of the founding executive team as vice president of sales at Benefitfocus (NASDAQ: BNFT) from its rise as a startup to becoming the largest benefits-enrollment software provider in the U.S.

Nate has sat and continues to sit on the board of directors of venture and private-equity-backed software companies, served as a trustee of Hampden Sydney College, and is an active Young Presidents Organization member.

In his free time, you can find Nate flying a plane or helicopter where he holds 10 different pilot ratings from the FAA, kiteboarding or training for the next Ironman race.

“When your ambitions change, we change with you. We are responsive, flexible and always evolving.”

– DOUG SMITH, PARTNER

Doug Smith

PARTNER

As the lead Partner at Roo Search, Doug utilizes his eye for extraordinary talent to build and grow our clients’ organizations in the digital health, healthcare services, consumer & retail technology, life science, and managed health care industries. He leverages considerable functional and industry expertise to execute quickly on key assignments and brings a proven track record, spanning several industry verticals and functional areas. Doug is skilled at managing complexity and change, having built leadership teams for businesses in a state of transition, such as a start-up, high growth or turnaround.

Doug has nearly a decade of experience in healthcare recruitment and consulting. Before joining the Roo team, he was a Principal for a leading healthcare executive search firm, where he built and led a team focused on C-level searches for Private Equity and Venture Capital backed organizations. Prior, he was an Associate Director for a leading healthcare recruitment firm, where he drove results for strategic accounts nationwide. Before that, he spent six years with a global professional services firm, promoted twice to become Director. In that role, he was charged with opening a new healthcare office and providing clinical workforce solutions.

When he is not working, you can find Doug spending time with his partner in crime — his lovable English Golden retriever named Brody. After their mandatory morning walk on weekends, Doug enjoys nothing more than playing an 18-hole round of golf and grilling the perfect steaks with friends.