Cincinnati Ecosystem

Cincinnati VC Regular Data:

VC Stage Definitions

Regular VC: Seed, Early Stage, Later Stage

Other Venture Related: Acquisition, Acquisition for Expansion, Bridge Loan, Expansion

Exclude: LBO, Other, PIPE, Recap, Secondary Buyout, VC Partnership

Session Details

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  0        -     DATABASE: Portfolio Companies (VIPC)
  1     95893    Venture Related Deals: Select All Venture Related Deals
  2     45423    Company Nation : US
  3       189    Company MSA : 1640
  4       133    Round Date: 1/1/2000 to 1/1/2017 (Custom) (Calendar)
  5              Custom Report: CincinnatiRound (Columnar) - Save As:
                 E:\McNair\Projects\Ecosystem\CincinnatiRound.txt

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 Billing Ref # : 2038623
 Capture File  : riceuniv.2038623
 Session Name  : CincinnatiRound.ssh

List of Variables

Variables:

Company Name

Company City

Company Street AddressLine 1

Company State

Company Founding Date

Date Company Received Last Investment

Total Known Amt Invested in Company 000

Date Company Received First Investment

Round Dates

Company Stage Level 3 at each Round Date

Round AmtDisclosed 000

Round AmtEstimated 000

Round Numbers

Number of Investors eaRound

Unedited Blog Post:

Introduction

The ten Fortune 500 companies that call Cincinnati provide a unique advantage for the emerging ecosystem. They have the potential to ignite the ecosystem, providing a unique narrative to a city known not for high tech development, but for branding, marketing and design. In 2015 Cincinnati jumped from 35th place to 16th out of 40 metropolitan areas for biggest positive shifts in rank across entrepreneurship in the city, state, and national levels. Several areas of the ecosystem are on a good trajectory, but many lack sufficient capabilities and resources that are likely inhibiting Cincinnati’s ecosystem development.

History of Entrepreneurship

The local and state governments have been the ignitors for the Cincinnati ecosystem. Grant programs have historically provided the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, and the Cincinnati Regional Chamber with funding for high tech projects. Companies such as Kroger, P&G and Macy’s have long called Cincinnati home but have been largely nonexistent in the ecosystem.

Resources in Cincinnati


The past few years have seen a remarkable increase in resources available for Cincinnati. Accelerators now span the tristate of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. The Brandery, located in Cincinnati and founded in 2010, was inspired by the success of accelerators such as Capital Factory and TechStars. The Brandery offers a three-month program for seed stage companies that utilizes the already existing strengths of Cincinnati; branding, marketing, and design. Companies receive $50,000 in seed funding in return for 6% equity stake in the startup, office space, branding identity, legal support and more. The Brandery has been ranked a top ten accelerator in the nation.

UpTech is a Greater-Cincinnati tech accelerator program for data-driven startups created in 2012. Startups go through a six-month accelerator program and receive up to $50,000 during the program. The third and newest accelerator in Cincinnati is Ocean, a three-year-old accelerator with a five-month program that provides mentorship, monetary support in the form of a $50,000 note, branding, and legal advice.


Seed stage investors such as CincyTech and Queen City Angels provide the ecosystem with capital. CincyTech’s mission is to strengthen the regional economy through the creation and expansion of technology companies in Southwest Ohio. CincyTech is investing out of its fourth and largest fund, a $30.75 million seed stage fund bigger than its first three funds combined. Queen City Angels is the region’s longest running angel group and is currently investing out of its largest fund of $10 million.

CincyTech garnered considerable national attention after providing Lisnr, a company that has invented an ultrasonic technology for transmitting data through sound, with Stage A capital. Lisnr came to fruition aboard the 2012 StartupBus, a competition where participants launch a company in 72 hours on a bus headed to Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest Festival. Since Lisnr came to fruition, they have since received $10 million in Series B funding from Intel Capital and garnered accolades from CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list, Cannes Lions International Festival for Creativity, and Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards.

Not to be overlooked, Queen City Angels provided the initial stage funding for Assurex Health. Now ten years old, Assurex grew out of research at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the Mayo Clinic. Its singular product is the GeneSight Test, which analyzes twelve genes that influence mental health and psychoactive drugs that treat a spectrum of mental-health disorders. Myriad Genetics purchased Assurex Health in April for $225 million with another $185 million to come when performance-met stipulations are met. 

StartupCincy, a public-private partnership that provides seed stage funding for Cincinnati startups, maintains an exhaustive list of upcoming network, education, accelerator and developer event in the city. It’s beloved by Cincinnati accelerators, seed stage investors, and entrepreneurs in the city. 


One of Cincinnati’s most unique elements of its ecosystem is Cintrifuse. Established in 2012 with a goal to create a sustainable technology driven economy for the Cincinnati metropolitan area, Centrifuse manages a fund of funds. This fund of funds gives corporate investors access to over four-hundred startups and creates a network of venture capital funds that invest in Cincinnati startups. Centrifuse pairs start-ups with potential customers and corporations to start-ups. Big companies like Kroger, USBank, the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and Duke Energy invest in Centrifuse because they depend on Cintrifuse’s help to source innovation for their businesses and grow the region’s startup ecosystem. In turn, Cintrifuse invests in VC firms such as Allos Ventures, Mercury Fund, and Sigma Prime Ventures. Cintrifuse also provides co-working space and entrepreneur education. 
 Over-the-Rhine, a neighborhood of Cincinnati is now home to Centrifuse, CincyTech, and the Brandery. Coordination of the ecosystem creates cohesiveness. The companies going through the Brandery are only feet away from CincyTech’s capital, which provides unique collaboration opportunities.

Venture Capital

No data—most recent VC data is from 2014 and has a three-year rolling average of $55 million. Falls far behind Austin, who is the leader with a three-year rolling average of $1.33 billion. 



Untapped Potential Compared to Austin’s average number of 29.3 patents per 10,000 employees, Cincinnati has an average of 5.8. However, Cincinnati only sits behind Austin, Raleigh, Minneapolis and Detroit in average number of patents. According to _____, The University of Cincinnati has more invention disclosures per research dollar than MIT, but fewer patents due to the lack of resources According to ____, the University of Cincinnati has more invention disclosures per research dollar than MIT, but fewer patents due to lack of resources. 

It’s generally held that a stable ecosystem closes around thirty to thirty-five deals a year. Cincinnati falls far below this. For an ecosystem that really only started in 2010 with the establishment of the Brandery, Cincinnati is beginning to establish some of the resources it will need in order to emerge as an entrepreneurial ecosystem.