The Fund’s mission is to drive economic growth and prosperity for our region by providing financial capital and networks to early stage and start-up companies located in or looking to locate in our geographic region. The Fund will look to partner with other organizations and individual investors to leverage capital and expertise to help grow innovative companies in southern Minnesota.
Typical investments are planned to be made in early stage companies from any industry but with an emphasis on medical, new technology and value added agriculture. The Fund expects to invest in 6-8 com-panies per year with a maximum initial investment of up to $100,000.
The Fund focuses on 20 counties in Southern Minnesota including;Blue Earth, Brown, Dodge, Faribault, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue, Houston, LeSueur, Martin, Mower, Nicollet, Olmsted, Rice, Sibley, Steele, Wabasha, Waseca, Watonwan, and Winona County.
Additional Fund Criteria:
- Management Team: Passionate team with "skin in the game
- Product: Unique, disruptive product with a sustainable competitive advantage or proprietary product
- Proof of Concept:Demonstrated market validation (beyond a plan): working prototype, beta testing and/or revenue generating model
- Returns: Scalable business that offers potential for returns of at least 3x’s our investment
- Capital:Raising $100,000 – $1,500,000. For companies raising more than $1,500,000, a lead investor is desired. Maximum Fund investment up to $100,000
- Valuation: We are looking to invest in companies that have a realistic, defensible , and fair valuation model that was created with an analysis that creates an alignment with our objectives
- Exit:Have a clear plan to exit within 3-7 years
