This story was updated at 10:10 a.m. Monday, April 20, to correct the name of the SaaS Factory.

Two of Akron’s active business investors are teaming up to increase their holdings and, they hope, their investment returns.

Marling Engle, founder of the software development firm Metisentry and its affiliated SaaS Factory (SaaS stands for software as a service), is teaming up his companies with Akron’s Fusion Ventures Fund.

“We’re partnering with Akron Fusion Ventures (Fund) to launch an SaaS-specific fund,” Engle said.

That means, he explained, that he’ll put some of his recent acquisitions and between $1 million and $2 million in cash into the new fund. Meanwhile, Fusion Ventures will put some of its SaaS-oriented businesses into the same fund and continue to raise additional capital from outside investors.

The new fund will operate as a subfund of the existing Fusion Ventures Fund, said Bill Manby, who launched Fusion Ventures in 2018 and has since been doing deals and raising capital with a goal of eventually raising $20 million.

Investors in Fusion Ventures, including existing ones, will be able to assign all or some of their money to the SaaS fund, or none at all, Manby said.

The arrangement combines Engle’s expertise in running and evaluating SaaS companies with the financial acumen of Fusion Ventures partners Manby and Victoria Tifft. Tifft also has technical experience, including in the realm of medical technology.

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