Funds accelerate the progress of Northeast Ohio’s young, high-growth companies.

Innovation Fund Northeast Ohio, the region’s most active pre-seed fund for technology-based startups, has awarded a combined $150,000 to four young companies. 

March 14, 2017: Four local startups will receive a combined $175,000 from Innovation Fund Northeast Ohio, the region’s most active pre-seed fund for technology startups. The companies will use awards between $25,000 and $100,000 to complete specific projects that will bring their technologies closer to market, preparing them to raise more funding, launch new products, and create jobs.

Dr. Simon Melikian invented a way for robots to see and learn.  Basically taking the biology of the human eye and turning it into technology. "I knew I had something really, really good to sell," he said. But he had no idea how to turn his creation into a business.  "I know how science works, I know how engineering works, I know how to build things but building a company is a completely different set of skills," he said. So he went to GLIDE the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise in the Desich Business and Entrepreneur Center at Lorain County Community College. 

December 20, 2016: Four technology startups are using a combined $200,000 to get innovative new products closer to commercialization. The companies won between $25,000 and $100,000 from the Northeast Ohio pre-seed fund and will use the money to make prototypes, test the technologies, and hire employees. The founders and their teams came to Lorain County Community College last week to meet the other award winners and share their startup stories.

A Lorain County Community College-led partnership has received a nearly $500,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration's i6 Challenge. The initiative, which is called the Northeast Ohio Regional Acceleration in Digital Innovation, or NEO ReADI, will "support innovation and commercialization of key technologies anchored in the region," according to a news release from the college. Lorain County Community College will manage the three-year grant through its Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise technology incubator. The release said partners include DigitalC, BioEnterprise, JumpStart Inc., Magnet, Team NEO and the Youngstown Business Incubator.

Five technology startups in Northeast Ohio will keep growing thanks in part to the Innovation Fund. The companies won between $25,000 and $50,000 from the region’s pre-seed fund and their founders will use the money to test technologies, improve products, and hire employees.

JumpStart has chosen the first company that will receive an investment from its recently recapitalized Evergreen Fund: Revenue Conduit. JumpStart has committed $250,000 to the Akron-based e-commerce software company. Revenue Conduit will use the money to speed up the development of its product, which links e-commerce platforms to marketing automation systems. The funding also will help Revenue Conduit acquire customers and get ready to raise additional capital in 2017, according to CEO Daniel Kurt.

The Innovation Fund, Northeast Ohio’s most active early-stage fund for technology-based startups, has committed a combined $150,000 to three companies. The fund awards startups up to $100,000 so they can validate their technologies and business concepts and often bridges the financial gap between self-financing and angel and venture capital funding.

BoxCast has already hired five fresh college graduates through the Venture for America program. And CEO Gordon Daily says he may very well hire another from this year’s graduating class. He loves the Venture for America program. Loves it. After all, the national fellowship program has provided his Cleveland-based startup company with a steady pipeline of well-rounded, entrepreneurial overachievers from all over the country. People he shouldn’t be able to afford.