Connetic Ventures Enters Catalytic Partnership to Accelerate Social Impact Startups
As announced at StartupCincy Week, Connetic Ventures has joined Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub and Miami University’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship in a catalytic new partnership. This collaboration will create additional opportunities for access to capital for social impact startups in the Cincinnati region. Connetic Initiative, an impact investing project by the principals of Connetic Ventures, has committed to matching the potential investments of the Miami Social Impact Fund in the startups that will comprise Flywheel’s fourth accelerator cohort. Connetic Initiative supports local startups that are unable to raise traditional venture capital, but have profitable, sustainable, and impact-focused business models. This addition to the partnership between Flywheel and Miami will strengthen the local startup ecosystem by providing social impact ventures with a powerful alternative form of capitalization. Connetic will also provide resources and support for undergraduate students who lead the Social Impact Fund as they gain real-world experience with impact investing.
Supporting Quotes:
“As profit-driven entities, venture capital firms are hardly ever in a position to say ‘yes,’” said Brad Zapp, Founder and Managing Partner of Connetic Ventures. “When we learned about Flywheel’s model, we saw an opportunity to not only say ‘yes’ to an innovative organization, but also support the concept of impact investing. While we do the majority of our investing outside this region, we prefer to do our impact work in this community — which makes this partnership a great use of our fund.”
“The idea behind the Social Impact Fund is to equip students with real-world experiential learning,” said Dr. Brett Smith, Founding Director of Miami University’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship. “Connetic’s support and due diligence tools will add a new dimension to this impact investing experience for the students — it’s an integration story that raises all boats in the Cincinnati ecosystem.”
“Even in the world of social innovation, no one wants to be first,” said Flywheel Executive Director Bill Tucker. “We are grateful to Connetic Ventures for being bold enough to take that step, and energized by their support for our incoming cohort. We hope that their commitment inspires others to join them, investing in ventures that do well and do good.”
About Connetic Ventures:
With their cutting-edge technology and proprietary data assets, Connetic Ventures is reinventing venture capital. Their use of data reduces bias in the investment process to bridge the gap in access to capital for ventures led by women and people of color. These efforts have set them apart from the typical VC firm, as 42% of their portfolio companies are led by women and people of color. The national average is 6%. The firm participates with venture capital firms and angel syndicates for companies that are in the seed stage. It focuses on developing core investment strategies and deploying them on startups to build up their portfolios. Though they have historically made most of their investments outside of the Greater Cincinnati region, this partnership gives them the opportunity to impact their local community and elevate the startup ecosystem in Cincinnati. Earlier this year, Connetic wrapped up its second fund by raising close to $30M.
About Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub:
Flywheel is a capacity-building organization and accelerator for startup companies with social impact. The Flywheel accelerator program, “Elevator”, connects participants to customers, talent and capital. Elevator provides mentorship, curriculum, and resources to help social entrepreneurs develop a sustainable business model and prepares them to seek capital investments as they launch and scale their company. Miami’s John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship has maintained a relationship with Flywheel as one of the organization’s founding partners.
About Miami University’s Social Impact Fund at the John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship:
Miami University’s John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship has been ranked in the Top 25 undergraduate entrepreneurship programs in the country for 11 consecutive years. The Center for Social Entrepreneurship has an internationally acclaimed program in social entrepreneurship that has partnered with U2’s Bono, the U.S. Department of State, and Social Entrepreneur Corps. Social Impact Fund undergraduate students will experience high-touch involvement in social enterprise development and capitalization processes. In addition to learning about investment deal flow, valuation, and scalability, they will also have the opportunity to make recommendations to faculty members on which entrepreneurs should be awarded funding. This will help the Institute build a portfolio of investments in social ventures, which will allow for future investments in worthy social ventures.