COMMUNITY. CAPITAL. ACCELERATION.
As the most active venture capital firm in the Great Lakes region since 2017, Elevate experienced another record-breaking year in 2022 with 128 transactions totaling $22.8M. One of our goals is for Elevate Ventures to be seen as an investor that not only provides critical capital for new company starts, but also attracts talent, increases jobs and adds post-investment value to grow more billion-dollar brands in Indiana. This goal goes hand in hand with Indiana’s potential to become the Innovation Capital of the World™. To drive our state closer to this vision, Elevate Ventures is focused on three areas:
• Community: Build Collaborative Communities
• Capital: Invest in High-Potential Companies
• Acceleration: Provide World-Class Go-To-Market Value
Securing funding for company growth was my primary focus in 2022. In September, we closed a $4.5M seed funding round, with Elevate Ventures as a lead investor alongside Hageman Group and Allos Ventures. This allowed Traction Ag to acquire Granular Business, a Corteva Agriscience product, in November 2022. Being in Indiana during this period of growth was especially important. Having Corteva and Traction Ag in the same state made it easier to complete the acquisition. We received a great deal of support from organizations like the DeKalb Chamber Partnership, AgriNovus Indiana and Elevate Northeast Indiana.
IAN HARLEY, CEO Traction Ag AUBURN
In 2022, Elevate invested a total of through six transactions in Northeast Indiana companies leveraging an additional from additional outside capital sources.
$785.5K $3.7M $7.9 M $43.2 M
When combined with previous years, Elevate has invested a total of and leveraged a total since 2011.
109 PEOPLE $66K
Companies that received investment from Elevate employ a total of have a combined average salary of and have an estimated total annual payroll of $7.1 M.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2022
Elevate Ventures achieved its threeyear goal (2020-2022) of investing in early-stage companies in the 11-county region.
$15M
BOARD MEMBERS
ANTHONY ARMSTRONG
IU Ventures
JASON BLUME
Trine University
JORDAN BREINER
Steel Dynamics
SARAH EARLS
Rouff Home Mortgage
DR. SHERILYN EMBERTON
Huntington University
CHARLOTTE GABET
Parkview Health
DAN MEEK
Elevate Ventures
MARK MICHAEL Retired
DR. MICHAEL MIRRO
Parkview Mirro Center for Research & Education
BRIAN MORE Catalyst Ventures
BRANDON NOLL
Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership
ERIC OTTINGER
Lake City Bank
LISA PECKHAM
Medical Informatics Engineering
BOB VITOUX
OrthoWorx
40% INCREASE
Elevate Northeast Indiana saw a in new high-growth, scalable business company formation during the year, helping to foster a stronger startup ecosystem.
Continued collaboration with regional entrepreneurial support organizations was strengthened in 2022 with the recent addition of
Andie HinesLagemann
to the Elevate Northeast Indiana Team. New programming and deal flow is anticipated to increase over the next year.
In 2022, I focused on STRE.ME’s market development, the process of intentionally generating revenue in a repeatable, capitalefficient way. Advisors, investors and other founders who have solved similar problems were really helpful in this endeavor because there is no substitute for lived experience. I thought I was prepared for this journey. Today, I know that what I learned in 2022 took me four years to figure out. There are no shortcuts. Experts say it takes 7-10 years to build a sustainable company. I’m 100% living it.
JACK PATTON, FOUNDER / CEO
STRE.ME
FORT WAYNEScan the QR Code to learn why Indiana is primed to be the Innovation Capital of the World™
