Private venture development organization Elevate Ventures won the Investor of the Year award during TechPoint’s 21st annual Mira Awards gala honoring the best of tech in Indiana.

WATCH VIDEO: Gerry Dick interviews Elevate Ventures General Counsel Phil Lodato.
WATCH VIDEO: Elevate Ventures accepts Investor of the Year Mira Award.

Elevate Ventures’ overriding purpose is to elevate Indiana’s entrepreneurism and innovation velocity. With $14.2 million deployed through 76 different investments in pre-seed through early-stage startups, 2019 proved to be another banner year for the venture development organization. The team, along with its statewide partnerships, is laser-focused on accelerating a statewide foundation upon which entrepreneurial ecosystems can take root and thrive.

The Mira Awards judges were impressed by the sheer volume of investments made in 2019, the additional capital those early investment attract from out-of-state firms, the impact those investments are having on the startup founders and community, and the overwhelming support and guidance provided by the Elevate Ventures infrastructure (including regional partnerships, the Elevate Nexus program targeting pre-seed startups, and eight entrepreneurs-in-residence). 

The passion Elevate Ventures team members exhibit about investing in Indiana companies is palpable. However, it’s the dedication to creating active and engaged entrepreneurial communities beyond the capital that truly earned Elevate Ventures the Investor of the Year award. According to PitchBook, Elevate Ventures ranked #1 in the Great Lakes Region for the third year in a row for number of venture investments made, as well as ranked as top 13th most active globally among venture capital firms investing in angel-stage or seed-stage companies.

Elevate Ventures celebrates the moment the venture development organization is named Investor of the year.
Elevate Ventures General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer Phil Lodato.

The judges also noted that Elevate Ventures had 13 different portfolio exits through acquisitions and reverse mergers in 2019, including companies like Sigstr, Costello, Doxly, and Go Electric.

Elevate Ventures first started investing in 2011. The organization currently manages 11 funds that are targeted towards pre-seed, seed and early-stage opportunities. Across these funds, they have a portfolio of 338 companies, with a total of nearly $100 million invested. These companies have in turn attracted $725 million in capital from other sources, and generated nearly $187 million in 2019 annual payroll. Well over 50% of the portfolio is in tech-enabled products and services. Many of them have been TechPoint Mira Awards nominees and winners in the past. 2015 saw 50% of Mira Awards winners from the Elevate portfolio. 2016-2018 were in the general range of 22% to 44% depending on the year.

TechPoint, the nonprofit, industry-led growth accelerator for Indiana’s tech ecosystem, honored the successes and innovation of Indiana people, places, companies and products during the 21st annual and first-ever virtual Mira Awards gala with presenting sponsors Eli Lilly and Company, Genesys, Infosys, Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Salesforce.

WATCH RECORDING OF EVENT BROADCAST

A total of 15 award winners and honorees were chosen from the 129 outstanding people, places companies and products that were selected as nominees for their achievements during the 2019 calendar year. Forty-eight independent, volunteer judges spent more than 850 total hours evaluating applications, interviewing nominees, and selecting this year’s winners. Judges included company founders, CEOs and presidents, CTOs, CIOs, and other subject matter experts.

SEE ALL 2020 MIRA AWARD WINNERS

The Mira Awards are named after the first of the brilliant variable stars to be discovered – the Mira Star. It is also the Latin root meaning “worthy of admiration, wonderful, marvelous.” The awards represent the best of tech in Indiana each year.