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Startups Have a New Way to ‘Engage’ With Companies, Georgia Tech

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A few months after Georgia Tech and the CEOs of 10 leading global corporations announced a new early stage venture fund, Engage Ventures has opened its application process.

Startups can apply for the three-month program here. The program is open to startups across the country.

Engage Ventures is the largest-ever strategic grouping of major corporations in an independent venture firm. The 10 founding companies contributing capital, expertise, time and resources in support of Engage include AT&T, Chick-fil-A, Cox Enterprises, Delta Air Lines, Georgia-Pacific, Georgia Power Foundation Inc., Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Invesco Ltd., The Home Depot, and UPS. Executives from these firms will serve as mentors to the companies receiving financial support from the venture fund.

Engage will offer programming and other services through a contract with the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), which was established at Georgia Tech by Georgia lawmakers in 1980 to launch and build technology companies.

The program is headquartered in Georgia Tech’s Technology Square.

Engage Ventures recently appointed Thiago Olson as its first Managing Director. Olson is an entrepreneur, physicist and venture partner at Tech Square Ventures.

“The core mission of Engage Ventures is to help emerging companies get their products to market,” he said. “We have an incredible lineup of Fortune 1000 companies, CEOs, and executives who will dedicate their talent and resources to help our entrepreneurs achieve their visions. Our pooled investment model for corporations is quite novel; it will let Engage maintain investment independence, while at the same time empowering startups to choose their own best path forward.”

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  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:Laura Diamond
  • Created:05/25/2017
  • Modified By:Jennifer Tomasino
  • Modified:01/09/2018