The venture firms or angel investors who bring money plus outstanding connections, advice, and attention to Indiana companies

One of the greatest things about Indiana’s tech ecosystem is that people are genuinely interested in this growing technology movement and they put their money where their mouth is. We’re always impressed by the caliber of support investors are willing to give in funding innovation and technology.

The Investor of the Year award spotlights angel investors or investment firms who bring capital plus outstanding connections, advice, and attention to Indiana tech companies. This award category recognizes all types of investors who bet on Indiana tech companies and serve as critical mentors and connectors.

It goes without saying that 2020 brought on many challenges as well as unforeseeable gains and losses with tech capital. You could even say the firms who didn’t falter and continued to back the Indiana tech industry took on some pretty courageous risks.

Our nominees this year all have different backgrounds. We’ve seen investors who are local entrepreneurs and know what it takes to start a new tech company in Indiana and the challenges that come with it. We’ve also seen investors who aren’t local and want a “wider-view” approach—focusing on the Midwest and Southeast regions, nationally— as well as a local, vested organization that wants to help support Indiana tech and keep Indiana tech local.  Regardless of the mission or investment thesis, these investors contributed to the Indiana tech ecosystem in 2020. 

Last year’s Investor of the Year winner, Elevate Ventures, had another busy year. Their commitment to investing in Indiana tech increased by 19%. They invested in a wide range of companies, spanning a COVID-19 risk assessment company to a food analytics platform helping to reduce our carbon footprint and food waste. Needless to say, their portfolio is as diverse as ever. 

In 2019, Allos was the nominee that took home the award for being the top investor. They started the year by closing on their latest fund, Allos III. Allos continued to grow internally and ended the year by investing in workplace collaboration and communication tools for companies. Realizing the importance of remote work and how it changed the look of work moving forward, Allos went all in.

This year’s nominees include:

  • IU Ventures (Bloomington, Ind.) — IU Ventures generates significant and long-lasting social and economic impact for IU, Indiana, and the World by enabling IU entrepreneurs and innovators.
  • Panoramic Ventures (Atlanta, GA) — Atlanta-based VC that takes a “wider-view” approach to investing by targeting in the Southeast and Midwest and placing a focus on diverse founders as well as university startups.
  • Susquehanna Growth Equity (Bala Cynwyd, PA) — SGE is known as a fundamentally different kind of investor. Founded and funded by entrepreneurs, they invest with no timelines, bring deep industry expertise, and offer tailored operational support.

The 2021 Mira Award winners will be announced live during a special broadcast of the 22nd annual gala on Thursday, April 22, with presenting sponsor Salesforce.