Every couple of years, a team of folks digs through a bunch of data, analyzes and assesses the flows of capital to small businesses and startups within the state, and reports out on what they’ve found. The latest version of that report — Oregon Capital Scan 2022 (PDF) — is now available for your reading pleasure.
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If you’re not familiar with the Oregon Capital Scan, it’s an effort in which a variety of folks from around the state engage, every two years. The “scan” is an effort to look back and determine the impacts and needs for capital in Oregon as it applies to business creation and growth. The Oregon Capital Scan for 2020 was just released.
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Portland based Conversa has raised another chunk of capital, expanding its Series B raise to $20 million. The funding will be used to “continue to scale its technology platform, expand its library of automated virtual care digital pathways, and fuel growth with new and existing customers.”
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If you’ve been paying attention to politics, congratulations. There’s a lot to be tracking at the moment. A lot. Which is why I wanted to take the opportunity to remind folks that — even if you’ve been keeping tabs on what’s happening — you may have missed that the Oregon startup community has a time sensitive request for you.
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This morning, The Oregonian is reporting that Nat Parker, cofounder of Portland startup GlobeSherpa which was acquired by Daimler, is joining Elevate Capital as an entrepreneur in residence. [UPDATE: And I just caught Malia’s post on it, too.] But there’s eine kleine twist.
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I still smile every time I see a startup covered by local media. So you can only imagine my downright giddiness when I woke up to a New York Times article on Zebras Unite, a growing international startup movement cofounded by Portland entrepreneurs Astrid Scholz and Mara Zepeda.
Startups have to juggle a lot. A lot. So picking their battles — or applications as it were — is an important part of deciding how they’re going to spend their time. And in my opinion, if you’re a founder who identifies as a woman, person of color, or LGBTQ, you’d be smart to spend your time applying to the Backstage Capital Accelerator. Because there isn’t a more truly and earnestly inclusive investor and accelerator, local or otherwise.
Well, at least we’re consistent. We never managed to get Google Fiber. Even though we submitted an RFP, we weren’t even really in the running for Amazon HQ2. And now, we just missed being the fourth location for the Backstage Capital Accelerator.
Over the past few years, the Portland Development Commission (PDC) has taken an increasingly active role in helping early stage startups through the Startup PDX Challenge. But they do more than that. They’ve helped thousands of small and medium sized business secure capital. Still, they realize that there is always room for improvement. Read More
Over the past few years, the chorus of Portland tech startups bemoaning a lack of access to capital has receded a bit. Because some of the problem that plagued startups of previous generations has been resolved with local funding resources. And a great deal more has been resolved by companies finding capital outside of the state. But what is the availability of capital in Oregon, these days? Is it improving? The Oregon Capital Scan aims to answer that question. Read More
