New $100MM venture fund creator retains 2nd Generation

Jon Yarbrough, creator of a new $100 million investment fund and founder-CEO of Smyrna-based Video Gaming Technologies, told VNC yesterday he has retained merchant banker 2nd Generation Capital to help him "develop a process at VGT...that should allow us to start investing in private ventures in a systematic and logical manner."

Fourteen-year-old 2nd Generation is led by founder Mike Collins (left), perhaps best known for conceptualizing and capitalizing Synaxis Group Inc., the property and casualty insurance brokerage later sold to First Horizon National Corp. for about $60 million. 2nd Generation has a diverse portfolio and is allied with KraftCPAs and Axis Accounting Systems. 2nd Gen also maintains a presence in Louisville.

VNC reported Yarbrough's formation of the new fund in April. Sixteen-year-old VGT handles roughly $30 billion per year in wagers, $1 billion of which goes to American Indian-owned casinos, with VGT revenues projected at roughly $200 million for 2008. According to Inc. magazine, VGT's growth rate from 2001 to 2004 was 9,721 percent.

VGT makes gambling machines used mainly on American Indian reservations. In 2007, the company won Tennessee General Assembly approval for changes in law that precludes VGT moving software jobs to the state. However, changes in the law proved insufficient, and most of VGT's highest-paying jobs thus remain in Virginia and elsewhere. ♦