P18Ventures sums up US $ 1.35M on its investment portfolio
Did you get the news? Our follow-up investment portfolio has new additions! Gen.6 #P18Alumni CINCO Engineering, DataWifi, and Dokimi, Inc — the owner of both EduSynch and Levely — are the latest companies to join P18Ventures.
As part of the island fundraising ecosystem’s continuous growth, our parent organization, the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research (PRSTRT), has invested a total of US $225K in these three startups that come from Puerto Rico (CINCO), Colombia (DataWifi) and the United States (Dokimi, Inc).
Basically, what our fundraising sub-program aims at is speeding up the growth of promising ventures that have been through our acceleration program. How does it work? Well, to achieve its mission, the fund, under the PRSTRT, matches private capital raised by entrepreneurs up to US $75K, in exchange for stocks or convertible notes.
And, with Gen.6’s alumni arrival, the portfolio now sums up a total of US $1.35M awarded to 19 companies since 2016, three of which went on to individually raise more than US $1M in subsequent fundraising rounds.
Enhancing the investment support infrastructure
In response to P18Ventures’ results so far, the second half of our acceleration curriculum is now deep diving into tapping fundraising opportunities for companies with innovation at their core. To carry this on, our Director of Operations, Lucas Arzola, has been in command of the program’s shift in investment focus, and since last year has been working on expanding its local and international investors network.
One way we started carrying out this shift is by hosting our first ever P18Ventures Summit last January. During the week-long event we reunited all of our alumni in the follow-up fund portfolio and paired them up with Gen.7 startups so that together they could discuss the hurdles that come after fundraising.
Additionally, alumni and Gen.7 companies got to hold mentoring and investment evaluation 1-on-1 with seven visiting investors as part of our Investor Roadshow within the Summit.
To put in perspective why this a big advance, Lucas has pointed out that “a few years ago, being able to raise capital on the island was almost unimaginable for startups.” But, according to him, our entrepreneurs are experiencing a shift in mentality and learning more about fundraising strategies to appeal to investors on the island.
“Today, these companies’ valuations are living up to those we’ve seen in big innovation hubs and our mission is to keep fostering that fast-growing quality by nurturing P18’s companies with the best investment education and opportunities,” he said.
On this matter, CINCO’s founder, Ruben Morales, mentioned how seeing that P18 has believed and supported them as a company every step of the way, has motivated them to “knock it out of the park.”
“We are ecstatic to continue our relationship with parallel18 as a part of the P18Ventures portfolio. This investment, along with the relationships and opportunities that come through the P18Ventures network, will allow us to reach our next objectives and set us up for sustainable growth over the next few years,” added Sean Kilachand, co-founder and CEO of Dokimi, Inc.
Other companies in our P18Ventures portfolio are Burea, Cinemad, Brands Of, Abartys Health, Quiena, BrainHi, Workep, Wisboo, Adventure Bucket List, Vozy, Molcajete Foods and GoPanza.
Soooooo, are you wondering when you can apply to P18 for a chance to get the follow-up fund? In February we closed applications for our eighth generation, set to kick off in May 2020.
But, if you’re a startup interested in applying, mark your calendar for November 2020! In the meantime, get in touch with cobi@parallel18.com regarding any questions about the program.
