Jim Zucco
Partner
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- Full Name
- Jim Zucco
- Title
- Partner
- Firm
- Cloquet Capital Partners, LLC
- Firm Type
- Venture Capital / Angel Investors
- Investment Stage
- Seed and early/growth stage (revenue-generating companies)
- Check Size
- Not publicly disclosed (firm's seed rounds have averaged ~$2M total round size per third-party data)
- Target Company Profile
- Technology companies with well-identified market opportunities that have begun to generate revenue
- Sector Focus
- Technology — including enterprise/B2B software, fintech, logistics, health tech, IoT, and commerce platforms
- Geographic Focus
- Greater NYC Metro area
- Location
- New York, NY (firm headquartered in New Canaan, CT)
Background
Jim Zucco is a Partner at Cloquet Capital Partners, an early- and growth-stage venture capital firm founded in 2003 as a spinout from Bank One Equity Partners and based in the greater New York metro area (New Canaan, CT). Zucco brings a deep operating background in the software, communications, and technology-platform industries, which he applies to the firm's investments in revenue-generating technology companies.
His operating career spans several major technology and telecommunications companies. He served as Senior Vice President and CIO of MCI Corporation, where he led product development and systems engineering; as VP and General Manager of the Business Communications Group at AT&T, where he led the launch of the company's internet activities — including AT&T's first IP network and its WorldNet ISP; and as Vice President and General Manager of the North American carrier business unit at Lucent Technologies. As CEO of Shiva Corporation, he executed a turnaround that returned the company to profitability within 18 months and led its sale to Intel Corporation. He also founded, served as CEO of, and sat on the board of Corente, a cloud-based service-delivery platform that was acquired by Oracle.
On the investing side, Zucco was previously a General Partner with Blue Rock Capital and an Executive-in-Residence at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He has also served as an independent board member on several public companies. He holds a BA from Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) and an MBA from Loyola College.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Invests through Cloquet Capital Partners under the firm's stated approach of "Capital with Experience," pairing funding with hands-on operating expertise.
- Targets "technology companies with well-identified market opportunities that have begun to generate revenue" — i.e., post-revenue rather than pure concept-stage bets.
- Focuses on early and growth stage rounds, including seed; third-party data indicates seed rounds averaging roughly $2M and later (Series C-type) rounds around $7.5M.
- Sector emphasis on technology-enabled business and consumer platform businesses — enterprise/B2B software, fintech, logistics/gig-economy, health tech, IoT, and commerce.
- Concentrates geographically on the Greater NYC Metro area.
Notable Investments
- Order.co — B2B spend/purchasing platform that simplifies buying for businesses (current).
- Qira — Property-management platform serving managers, landlords, and tenants (current).
- Hailify — Logistics platform optimizing driver supply and job dispatch for the gig economy (current).
- OnSiteIQ — Construction visual documentation and risk-assessment service (current).
- Biotia — Health tech using DNA sequencing and AI to detect microorganisms and antimicrobial resistance (current).
- CityHive — Enterprise software for wine, beer, and liquor retailers and distributors (current).
- Agilis Commerce — Digital commerce solutions for the chemical industry (current).
- Sensatek — Wireless ceramic sensors for gas-turbine health monitoring (current).
- Aeris Communications — IoT/M2M connectivity platform for mission-critical programs (current).
- Corente — Cloud-based service-delivery platform Zucco founded and led; acquired by Oracle (exited).
- Julius — Influencer-marketing platform; exited via merger with HYPR.
- Other exits — Visionael, eStara, Searchandise, Mi8 Corporation, Prominence Networks, Quest Specialty Chemicals, and uReach Technologies, among others.
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