Reference Capital Management, LLC was founded in 2006 by Wayne Embree and Brock Metcalf, PhD, merging long-time early stage investment firms Cascadia Partners and OLS, LLC.  Metcalf and Embree have collaborated since 1994.  After investing in – and in some cases co-founding – numerous companies, they determined that the time was right for a new kind of venture capital firm in the region. Later in 2011 Dave Williams became a partner in the firm after 12 years as CEO of Shore Bank Pacific and building it into the Northwest’s preeminent environmentally focused banking. The Partners leverage their extensive early stage investment and management experience in collaboration with entrepreneurs to exploit innovation, efficiencies and novel processes to deliver exceptional returns to investors.

Reference Capital focuses its investment management on market sectors and opportunities in which the Northwest possesses clear, competitive advantages. Reference Capital is the General Partner for the Sustainability Investment Funds (SIF).  SIF capitalizes on the Northwest’s strong environmental stewardship, and innovative technologies. The SIF funds look for companies whose fundamental strategies use assets most effectively, these include utilization of materials, employees, and community assets.   Those distinguishing strategies are what we expect to use to gain unusual returns in national and international markets.

Selected Portfolio Companies

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Image credits: Smith Rock image: By William Kelly (own work); Seattle skyline image: By Daniel Schwen (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons; Mt. Hood image: By Adam Simmons (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons; Portland skyline image: By William Kelly (own work)