Endeavor Louisville is delighted to showcase CincyTech, an Ohio-based seed-to-Series A venture capital firm that shares our commitment and dedication to helping innovative entrepreneurs attain high-impact results. CincyTech funds local entrepreneurs and organizations with the potential to “create jobs, economic vitality and wealth in Southwest Ohio.” The impact they’re creating is making waves.
Dynamic Leadership
The impressive team who vet venture capital partners and members of CincyTech’s investment portfolio are a large part of what makes the group remarkable. With the strong leadership and guidance of experienced and talented business people like Mike Venerable, CEO, and Jennifer Dauer, Executive in Residence, CincyTech is poised to increase its impact.
Mike Venerable, a longtime business leader and co-founder of the software consulting group, Talus, delivers long-term perspective and directorship. In a recent interview, he explained his vision of Cincinnati as a tech leader: “Whatever success you’re seeing now, it’ll be five, ten times that in a decade. This is the end of the beginning.” He brings this outlook to CincyTech, explaining to Cincinnati Business Review, “If a region like ours doesn’t invest in opportunities here, those opportunities either stay on the shelf or they go elsewhere for capital.” Venerable’s tactic of early investing and support of up-and-coming tech companies is key to CincyTech’s attracting talent and creating economic growth.
Jennifer Dauer, a 26-year veteran of Procter & Gamble where she climbed to the roles of Vice President and General Manager and who more recently served as the Senior Vice President for Strategy & Growth at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, brings a strategic edge to CincyTech. She joined the company in 2018 to help bolster their current portfolio and develop and execute a strategic plan for coming years. Her extensive business, planning, and organizational experience help CincyTech create new partnerships and fine-tune the deal flow of investment and business proposals to ensure maximum results.
Boosting the Region’s Tech Footprint
To promote the development of the region’s economy, CincyTech provides financial, managerial, and networking support to promising startup technology companies in the Cincinnati area. Their strategic investing means these promises are paying off in big ways. Thus far, they’ve had eleven exits, including Cincinnati-based Roadtrippers, a web and mobile platform tech company acquired by travel behemoth TH2 this past February, and ThinkVine, provider of advanced marketing optimization software and services acquired by Ignite Technologies in 2016.
The impact of CincyTech’s forward-thinking investment in tech continues to grow. Eccrine Systems, a tech company developing non-invasive, wearable systems to measure and send real-time information about sweat for medicine, industry, and sports, was listed as one of Bloomberg’s “50 Most Promising Startups You’ve Never Heard Of” for 2017. And ConnXus, a cloud-based supply management software company, is not only leading the way in supply management innovation but is also in “employee empowerment, diversity and inclusion.”
Moving the Midwest Forward
In the eleven years since its inception, CincyTech and the companies it supports have created over 1000 jobs and over $1 billion in economic impact for the region. With 37 active portfolio companies and almost $9 million in co- and follow-on investments, CincyTech continues to move tech in the Midwest forward by supporting future leaders and employers to create wealth in the community.
