Pre-Seed Fund

PRE-SEED FUND INVESTMENT GUIDELINES

Investing $20,000-$100,000 into ideation and pre-seed stage companies.

PURPOSE

These investment guidelines specifically apply to the Pre-Seed Fund, which has been established to invest, hold, and account for funds collected as distributions from all direct investments made by the State of Indiana managed by Elevate Ventures, Inc. (“Elevate Ventures”) through its subsidiary Elevate Advisors LLC (“Elevate Advisors”) to foster and promote the development of entrepreneurs and emerging companies within the State of Indiana.

$20,000-$50,000 INVESTMENTS

Investments should be used for early product or service development—essentially, to prepare the company to maximize its future fundraising opportunities via the assembly and testing of a coordinated, effective core team and the building of a minimum viable product (MVP) that goes beyond a prototype.

To be considered, companies must:

• Be Indiana based
• Have a total addressable market of over $500M
• Have a unique value proposition
• Have a committed team with the ambition to create a venture-backed, high-growth enterprise
• Can articulate how Pre-Seed investments up to $100,000 will be sufficient to attract other investors potentially
• Be available to present the company pitch deck to the Elevate Ventures Pre-Seed Investment Committee.

$50,000-$100,000 INVESTMENTS

Investments should be used for companies that have already validated their value proposition and are developing the levers with which they will define how their businesses will ultimately scale via an infusion of venture capital.

To be considered, companies must:

• Fulfill all requirements outlined above for a $20,000-$50,000 investment consideration
• Have completed an MVP, or if selling in a government-regulated field (i.e., requires FDA or USDA approval), the company should have a viable plan for developing a completed prototype or trial results.
• Have conducted customer discovery and, preferably, gone through a formal customer discovery process
• Start to demonstrate professional operations by adding expertise as managers, board members, and/or advisors.
• Preferably, have validated the company’s value proposition by generating early revenue, securing signed contracts, and/or establishing strategic partnerships with entities that will license or buy the company’s intellectual property upon future development.
• May have, or are in the process of, raising capital
• Be available to present the company pitch deck to the Elevate Ventures Pre-Seed Investment Committee.

If a company is successfully raising capital on different terms, those terms will be taken into consideration throughout the evaluation and voting process. Only investment terms the Pre-Seed Investment Committee supports will be offered to the Elevate Ventures Investment Committee for consideration.

CIRCUMSTANCES TO CONSIDER A $100,000 INVESTMENT

In certain circumstances, companies will require the full $100,000 pre-seed investment in one tranche to attract seed investors. These companies must fulfill the requirements of the $50,000-$100,000 investment and have unique circumstances warranting the full award. Elevate Ventures must have unusually high conviction in the company (see Unfair Advantages section below).

SPECIAL CONSIDERATION FOR COMPANIES WITH UNFAIR ADVANTAGES

In the circumstances where pre-seed companies with clear, unfair advantages engage Elevate Ventures for investment consideration, Elevate reserves the right to consider investment via other investment funds (IANF II, IANF III, return fund, etc.). This allows Elevate Ventures, at its discretion, to invest more than $100,000 in the most promising pre-seed opportunities. These companies are required to follow the traditional direct investment process, including but not limited to satisfactory completion of due diligence and syndication of co-investment of at least a 1:1 match from other investors.