A Houston-based venture capital firm has made some moves in its personnel. Mercury Fund has made one new hire and one promotion.

Mercury Fund, which focuses on early-stage startups located in central United States, announced the promotion of Heath Butler to managing director from network partner. Additionally, Samantha Lewis — formerly investment director at Houston-based Goose Capital — is joining the fund as principal.

"Over the past few years, we've continued to build our investment team with top talent from our ecosystem," says Blair Garrou, co-founder and managing director of Mercury, in a news release.

"The promotion of Heath and the addition of Samantha will further Mercury's early-stage venture leadership in Middle America, and is illustrative of Mercury's deep commitment to diversity as a core value driver," continues Garrou.

Butler joined Mercury over a year ago and has over 20 years of experience in the Houston startup ecosystem. A serial entrepreneur, he recently co-founded Houston-based Urban Capital Network, an angel investment group dedicated to democratizing capital and wealth generation for underrepresented investors. In his new role, he will continue this work to engage underrepresented founders in the community for Mercury Fund.

Meanwhile, Lewis — a Rice University MBA graduate — joins Mercury from a few years serving Goose Capital, a group of high-networth investors and serial entrepreneurs. At Goose, Lewis was responsible for leading deal sourcing, structuring, and portfolio management. Formerly a startup founder herself, Lewis will be responsible for assisting in in the review and diligence of new early-stage investment opportunities and continues to improve and diversify Mercury's deal sourcing processes.

Mercury Fund was founded in 2005 in Houston by Garrou and Dan Watkins. The firm has an office in Ann Harbor, Michigan, and has funded several Houston-founded startups, including Spruce, Ambyint, and more.