NIIC Capital Ventures helps to remove the financial hindrances from a venture’s path so that it can effectively launch and grow its business. It is a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of the Innovation Center and supplies the capital needs of promising clients through gap financing pre-seed and start-up stage funding, asset-based leasing, and working capital loans.
- Gap financing – for uses like prototype development, feasibility studies, and business plan creation - is usually tied to a specific project and may be as large at $50,000.
- Asset-based leasing provides up to $25,000 for a client to lease equipment needed to enhance their operations while resident at the Innovation Center.
- Revolving working capital loans to help counter the cyclicality of the technology sales cycle may range from $5,000 to $15,000.
Investments are made by NIIC Capital Ventures’ LEAP Fund, a $250,000 (to date) fund seeded by an investment from the City of Fort Wayne. It provides no return of capital to investors – instead all profits and ROI revolve and are reinvested into the Fund. The Executive Committee of the Innovation Center’s Board serves as the Board of Directors for NIIC Capital Ventures, assisted by a five-person Investment Committee selected by the Board Chair, and its investment recommendations follow a prescribed assessment, evaluation, and due diligence protocol.