Buck Buckley

Buck Buckley is the co-founder and CIO of SEMCAP and former CEO of Actua Corporation, formerly ICG Corporation, a company that he co-founded along with Ken Fox. In 2017, Actua Corporation announced the sale of its majority-owned assets and that it would return 3x capital to shareholders.

Early life and education Buckley grew up in Devon, Pennsylvania, and attended Episcopal Academy through high school. He then attended University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in political science.

Currently Buckley and Cyrus Vandrevala co-founded Semcap in 2020. SEMCAP is a growth impact manager investing in AI, food, and healthcare companies. The company has made investments in companies including ALOHA, Arcana, FreshPrep], Purely Elizabeth, Good Culture, Lula Commerce, NeuroFlow, Overwatch Imaging, SafeinHome, and SafeRide Health.

Buckley co-founded Primary Source Media, an audio and film production company specializing in historical content. Buckley is the co-founder and executive chair of Primary Source Media.

Earlier in his career In 1988, Buckley joined Safeguard Scientifics, a venture capital firm. From 1991 to 1996, Buckley was the Vice President of Acquisitions at Safeguard. There, he oversaw the acquisitions of a number of companies including ChromoVision, Diamond Technology, Video Server, and XL Vision.

Internet Capital Group Buckley and fellow Safeguard executive Ken Fox noticed an emerging market in e-commerce business-to-business and left Safeguard in February 1996 to found a venture capital firm, Internet Capital Group (later shortened to ICG).

In August 1999, the company became a public company via an initial public offering, offering stock for sale at $12 per share. By December 1999, the stock was trading at over $200 per share and Buckley's stake of 10,000,000 shares, or 3.5% of the company, was worth over $2 billion. By November 2000, the stock was down to $11 per share and after the September 11 attacks it traded for 20 cents per share. Buckley sold very little of his stock and remained optimistic. At its closing, Actua distributed close to $18/share and provided a triple return to investors.

Other affiliations Buckley serves on the Board of Directors for Philadelphia based FS Investments, a $34+ billion asset manager. He is a director of several technology startups including Critical Alert, Diagnostic Biochips, Dropps, Margaux and Desten. He is on the advisory boards of the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative, the UNC Kenan–Flagler Business School, the Vetri Community Partnership and Starfinder Foundation. Previously, he was a director of Breakaway Solutions, Channel Intelligence, Familywyze, ICG Commerce and VerticalNet .

Personal life Buckley is an avid runner, often traversing a long, rocky hill near the SEMCAP headquarters at Valley Forge National Historical Park. Buckley has two children.