Elevate Ventures is known as one of the most active seed and early-stage investors in the Great Lakes area. And the venture firm has invested over $156 million in more than 500 companies. To learn more about the firm, Pulse 2.0 interviewed Elevate Ventures CEO Christopher Day.
Christopher Day’s Background
Before Day came to Elevate Ventures, he co-founded eight businesses in 7 different sectors, including artificial intelligence, SaaS, hard-tech, broadband, entertainment, investment banking, and real estate.
“I’ve been involved in over $600 million in transactions, including multiple exits to Fortune 500 companies,” said Day. “What I love about being at Elevate Ventures is working with up-and-coming founders and helping to foster that same sense of innovation and excitement with entrepreneurs among our portfolio companies. It’s an exciting time to be in the heart of world-class talent and innovative companies.”
Evolution Of Elevate Ventures’ Thesis
How has Elevate Ventures’ thesis evolved over time? “Elevate is the #1 most active seed and early-stage VC in the Great Lakes Region and #24 in the United States per Pitchbook League tables,” Day explained. “Elevate invests in cross-sector, innovation-driven enterprises. We also provide mentorship and other resources to help entrepreneurs build and grow their businesses, focusing on supporting the startup ecosystem in Indiana.”
In the last few years, the middle corridor of the US has become the region best positioned to take advantage of the coming Productivity Boom.
“Economists predict the middle portion of the country will see higher growth in tech than ever before. This is largely due to the proximity of industries to one another and the cost structure. Elevate is built to help founders ride this wave,” Day added.
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Elevate Ventures’ most significant milestones? “Elevate was founded in 2011 and we launched our first investment fund that same year. According to Pitchbook, we have been the Most Active VC Firm in the Great Lakes region since 2017. We have invested nearly $160 million into over 520 companies across Indiana,” Day reflected. “This year, we are launching Rally, with plans for the conference to be the world’s largest cross-sector innovation summit, bringing together 5,000 stakeholders from software, health-tech, sports-tech, ag & food, hard-tech, and more in its first year. Rally will feature a $5 million pitch competition in those five innovation studio tracks.”
Formation Of Rally IN-Prize Competition
How did the idea for the Rally IN-Prize Competition come together? “We created Rally to bring together disparate stakeholders from various industries and backgrounds to work on building and testing new ideas. Hearing different perspectives is critical for a founder’s path to success. But too often, they lack the opportunities to have their ideas stress-tested,” Day recalled. “Rally is designed to make ‘creative collisions’ happen so attendees get exposure to ideas outside their traditional circles. Competition is fiercer than ever, and entrepreneurs won’t be successful if they don’t get out of their comfort zones and allow themselves and their ideas to be challenged, taken apart, and put back together again. We have an expert lineup of speakers that entrepreneurs, startups, scaleups, and corporations won’t want to miss.”
Day told me Rally will be the best startup and scaleup conference this year.
“We encourage founders and investors in software, hard-tech, ag & food healthcare, and sports-tech to experience Rally this August and learn from the best in and across sectors. They can learn more at rallyinnovation.com,” Day continued. “If companies want to show off their innovative products, I also invite them to apply to the Rally Demo Arena. We’re also hosting curated 1:1 investor and company meetups that attendees will not want to miss.”
Investment Success Stories
When I asked Day about investment success stories, he cited that the firm has 139 exits and these are some examples:
— Emerging Threats, a cyber security research company acquired by Proofpoint.
— Pactsafe, a clickwrap transaction platform acquired by Ironclad.
— Lessonly, a training software acquired by Seismic.
— Socio, an event management platform acquired by Cisco.
Assets Under Management
Elevate currently has $215 million in assets under management.
“We invest between $20,000 to $2 million in any given round in the ideation, pre-seed, seed, and series A stages of the funding continuum, with up to $4 million in a particular company,” Day commented.
Industry Focus
What are some of the industries that Elevate Ventures is focused on? “Elevate is industry agnostic. We invest in multiple sectors, including B2B and B2C software, food, agriculture, healthcare, sports-tech, manufacturing, and more. These are also focus areas for Rally. Our studios are Software, HardTech, SportsTech, Ag & Food, Healthcare, and Entrepreneurship. As part of Rally, we’re holding a $5 million pitch competition,” Day replied.
Differentiation From Other Firms
What differentiates Elevate Ventures from other firms? “We’re passionate about innovation and entrepreneurial growth in the Midwest, which is our focus. We assist companies in both a venture development capacity and a venture capital investing capacity. This means we can help entrepreneurs from ideation all the way through $10 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). We have plans to expand into the growth stage of the funding continuum to better work with more companies through $50 million in ARR and beyond,” Day answered. “We partner with economic development agencies, manufacturers, tech companies, and universities, among others. I believe our mentorship of founders is second to none, and if I were a founder again, there’s no investor I’d rather work with than Elevate. We’re also holding one of the largest pitch competitions in the country this year.”
Future Firm Goals
What are some of Elevate Ventures’ future goals? “We’ll continue to support startups through our investment programs and initiatives while expanding to reach more entrepreneurs in underserved communities,” Day concluded. “We believe strongly in the middle corridor’s future as the next great tech hub and are focused on making that prediction a reality. We believe the middle corridor is the home of the nation’s most promising entrepreneurs.”
