December 20, 2018
Dollars enable companies to move closer to measurable technology or product development milestone
South Bend-Elkhart, IND. – Elevate Ventures, a venture development organization headquartered in Indianapolis, has awarded two companies in North Central Indiana with an investment from its Community Ideation Fund, an initiative propelling entrepreneurs in each of its partnership regions. The Community Ideation Fund enables ideation-stage high-potential companies to move closer to a specific, measurable technology or product development milestone with an investment between $5,000 and $20,000.
Through Elevate Ventures’ partnership with Startup South Bend-Elkhart, the two companies most recently awarded a Community Ideation Fund investment include:
- Frost Control Systems: a company developing a sensor-based solution that helps cities maintain road safety during winter maintenance.
- Healthy Points: a healthcare technology company that promotes prenatal self-management of at-risk pregnant women by providing a platform for secure communication among patients and healthcare management staff.
“The Community Ideation Fund was designed to lessen the capital burden emerging entrepreneurs often face in the idea stage. It’s the smaller investments like these dollars that can be pivotal to getting an idea off the ground or to advance toward the next stage of growth,” said Gavin Ferlic, Elevate Ventures North Central Entrepreneur-in-Residence. “Frost Control Systems and Healthy Points each identified a marketplace gap and now, with the support of our Community Ideation Fund, each company can move closer to deploying its solution.”
Eligible Community Ideation Fund applicants include Indiana-based companies with headquarters in communities under a partnership with Elevate Ventures, and who have no more than $50,000 in trailing revenue over the past 12-month period.
Under the Community Ideation Fund, each partnership 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 Corporation and promotes economic growth and innovation-driven public-private partnerships in Indiana.
“The Community Ideation Fund is by-purpose – this money allows Frost Control Systems to thrive and grow, while also improving the lives of the whole community,” said Frost Control Systems president, Bradley Tener. “I can’t even begin to explain the positive impact this support has already had on our product development and resulting manufacturing.”
Frost Control Systems is a company developing a sensor-based solution to help cities safely maintain roads amid the winter season. Historically, cities have relied on de-icing – or road salting – in order to reduce road accidents. However, the long-term environmental impact and cost of deicing is limiting current usage capabilities. By monitoring road temperature in real time, Frost Control Systems’ sensors allow cities to safely reduce deicer usage in warmer areas of the city while focusing resources towards improving safety and response times around schools, hospitals, and known hazardous areas.
Healthy Points addresses the issue of at-risk pregnant women engagement in their prenatal healthcare. By providing a HIPAA-compliant social media application to health systems and their community health programs, Healthy Points allows at-risk pregnant women to safely communicate with each other and healthcare professionals while earning incentives for participating in healthy behaviors. The company’s vision is to positively impact health disparities and improve quality of life for at-risk pregnant women globally.
“The Elevate Community Ideation Fund is essential in enabling Healthy Points to complete an exciting product trial with over 200 at-risk pregnant women, having the potential to save the health system over $6.5 million,” said Healthy Points co-founder, Gillian Shaw. “With a successful trial here locally, Healthy Points has the goal of reaching health systems across Indiana and the United States, which will not only save health systems billions of dollars – it will dramatically increase the quality of life for at-risk pregnant women and save lives.”
For more information on the Community Ideation Fund, visit elevateventures.com/entrepreneurs/investment-funding.
