Elevate Capital (Elevate Capital LLC) is a privately owned
venture capital firm based in
Portland, Oregon, that focuses on early-stage investments in
startup companies and particularly those companies led by women, minorities, and veterans. The firm manages the Elevate Capital Fund that invests in early-stage companies and the Elevate Inclusion Fund that invests in startups run by women and minority entrepreneurs.
__TOC__
History
Elevate Capital was founded in January 2016 by Managing Director Nitin Rai. Also in January 2016, the Portland Development Council (now
Prosper Portland
Prosper Portland, formerly the Portland Development Commission (PDC), is the community development corporation created by the city of Portland, Oregon. It promotes development, housing projects and economic development within the city's eleven urba ...
) selected Elevate Capital as the management firm for its publicly financed investment fund whose stated goal was to improve diversity among Oregon startups. In August 2016, Elevate Capital made its first six investments in startups including Blendoor, Goumikids, Hubb, I.T. Aire, RFPIO, and Versi.
In April 2017, Elevate Capital invested $500,000 in Medical Magnesium as part of the Rice Business Plan Competition held at
Rice University. In July 2018, one of Elevate Capital's investments,
RFPIO
Responsive (formerly RFPIO, Inc.) is a privately owned developer of cloud-based software that automates and streamlines the process of responding to a request for proposal (RFP) based in Beaverton, Oregon. The company also maintains an office in ...
, secured a $25 million funding round from private equity firm K1 Investment Management. This resulted in an early exit for Elevate Capital and produced significant returns. On October 12, 2018, Elevate Capital hosted the Elevate Inclusion Summit at
Portland Center Stage at the Armory to connect women founders and minority entrepreneurs with investors.
Investments
Elevate Capital strives to maintain a 50-50 male to female founders split across its investment portfolio, and its investments are in companies that have at least one co-founder from a minority group.
See also
*
List of companies based in Oregon
This is a list of companies based in Oregon. Oregon is the ninth largest by area and the 27th most populous of the 50 United States. The gross domestic product (GDP) of Oregon in 2010 was $168.6 billion; it is the United States's 26th wealthies ...
References
{{Oregon Companies
Financial services companies established in 2016
Venture capital firms of the United States
Privately held companies based in Oregon
2016 establishments in Oregon
Companies based in Beaverton, Oregon