A Bloomington-based startup with ties to Columbus is the first in the Velocities region for investment by Elevate Ventures and its Community Ideation Fund.
Civic Champs, a social enterprise that streamlines volunteer management, pitched its business platform to an investment committee within Velocities, a partnership between Elevate Ventures, Bloomington-based incubator The Mill and the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce. The partnership, formally announced in December, is designed to develop an entrepreneurship-minded culture and infrastructure in the south central Indiana area.
Under the Community Ideation Fund, each partnership region, including south central Indiana’s Velocities region, has access to up to $200,000 over the next three years through the state’s 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, which is overseen by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. and promotes economic growth and innovation-driven public-private partnerships in Indiana.
Garnering a great deal of local support, Civic Champs has raised a total of $312,000, including the funding from Elevate. Of that total, $70,000 came from local investors.
For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.
