RevTech Labs and Panoramic Ventures are partnering to give one local startup $120,000 during next month's Venture135 conference.
Venture135 is a conference that focuses on generating innovation and quality capital flow. Ashley Everett, RevTech Labs program director, said prior to last year, the programming was focused predominately on fintech, insurtech and health-tech startups.
In 2020, RevTech Labs decided to feature a regional pitch party that brought in local startups from all industries.
"Over the course of that six years we’ve been able to grow it pretty exponentially," she said. "It’s been Dan (Roselli's) personal mission and passion, number one, to elevate the venture capital ecosystem in the Southeast, and two, to be able to kind of spotlight a lot of entrepreneurs and startups coming out of Charlotte, regardless of industry."
Everett said it was the shift to include startups across all industries that made a partnership with Panoramic Ventures a reality.
"As we grew into our second year, we wanted to again bring in these investors, VCs and corporate partners and plug the entrepreneurs in the system. That’s where the relationship with Panoramic came about," Everett said. "It just made sense to collaborate and combine our platforms to take this event and what we’re doing for local entrepreneurs to the next level."
Panoramic Ventures is an Atlanta-based tech-focused venture fund that hosts a monthly pitch competition called Startup Showdown. Startups apply for the chance to pitch for a $120,000 investment. Tami McQueen, Panoramic vice president of marketing, said the organization's established relationship with RevTech Labs made incorporating the pitch competition into Venture135 a no-brainer.
"Because of the long-standing relationship with RevTech Labs and Venture135, which is really looked at and respected as an incredible event, we thought it would be a great opportunity," she said. "They have the infrastructure for a pitch event, and it's an opportunity to bring an investment alongside of it."
McQueen said unlike the typical Startup Showdown where founders and entrepreneurs from all over are encouraged to apply, the pitch event at the Venture conference is for Charlotte-area founders only.
"The point of being in a specific regional location is that we make the call for startups in that region to apply, and that way the investment goes back into that region," she said.
Applications are open until midnight. McQueen said the Panoramic investment team will choose 25 applicants who they'll pair with mentors skilled in the founders' specific industry or type of startup. From there, five finalists are selected to pitch at the conference on Nov. 16. The Venture135 conference runs through Nov. 17.
