Fort Wayne Startup Focused on Managing Biases Receives Funding

Fort Wayne, Ind. – STRE.ME, a startup focused on reducing the effects of biases within the workplace, today announced that it has raised $270,000 in a pre-seed round led by Techstars and Elevate Ventures with participation from several angel investors.

STRE.ME was launched in 2018 to help organizations simplify the business growth process and improve decision-making. Based on the results of customer discovery research conducted since its launch, STRE.ME pivoted to its current platform of helping business leaders reduce the effects of implicit bias. It is available as a web application that provides personalized and confidential insights for managing biases.

“Backed by peer-reviewed research and documented results, STRE.ME is now positioned to accelerate growth and customer acquisition in our target market while reaching into markets with regulatory drivers for which our platform and mode of delivery is the first of its kind,” said Anne Marie Labenberg, co-founder and chief equity officer. “We are able to meet these industries with progressive technology to change not only the health and outcomes of the organization but that of employees and customers as well.”

“STRE.ME makes it easy for leaders to deliver awareness and accountability to their organizations,” said Dan Meek, Elevate Ventures entrepreneur-in-residence serving Elevate Northeast Indiana. “I’m excited about the level of engagement corporations are experiencing using STRE.ME’s cloud-based solutions.”

The funding will allow STRE.ME to concentrate on onboarding key customers and pave the way for another round of funding to accelerate its sales model.

“As business leaders, we understand how important employee engagement and team dynamics are to building healthy organizations, especially when implicit biases silently influence the way we make decisions, behave, and communicate,” said co-founder and CEO Jack Patton. “Closing this round of funding helps fulfill our mission of creating cultures of awareness and accountability.”

STRE.ME was a recipient of the Community Ideation Fund from Elevate Ventures in 2019. The company participated in the Cox Enterprises Social Impact Accelerator Powered by Techstars in 2021.