Next Level Ventures

Next Level Ventures (NLV) is Iowa's largest and most prominent strategic investment firm, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Des Moines. The firm is led by Founder and Managing Partner Craig Ibsen, who brings more than 25 years of operating experience, previously serving as a senior executive at Maytag Corporation and as the founder of Appliancezone, a global appliance-parts supply-chain software company. The team also includes Managing Partner Michael Perrin, Principal Liz Keehner, and long-tenured COO Barbara Gooch, who built operational infrastructure for Churchill Capital and Northstar Capital over 25 years before joining NLV. Across five funds, NLV manages approximately $500 million to $700 million in assets and a portfolio of roughly 45 to 50 companies. Three of those funds target Iowa startups specifically through the Iowa Fund series, while others support broader themes — the Curql Fund, for example, delivers fintech solutions to credit unions nationwide. NLV writes checks from $500,000 to $5 million into companies approaching or at product-market fit raising rounds of $1 million to $4 million, with a strong Midwest bias across agtech, data analytics, fintech, healthtech, IoT, SaaS, and AI. In January 2025 NLV launched Fund III, its fifth vehicle overall and third Iowa-focused fund, with the inaugural investment from that vehicle deployed into Genvax Technologies, an Ames, Iowa biotechnology company, in February 2025. A notable portfolio exit is the acquisition of Tractor Zoom by Anvil App Works. NLV's deep roots in the Iowa entrepreneurial community, combined with its multi-fund scale, position it as both the most active investor and the most connected network in the state's emerging technology ecosystem.