Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
6 <br /> 4 <br /> Highlights from 2014 annual calendar year survey: <br /> (24 of the 34 Launch teams served thru Dec 2014 responded) <br /> 18 Teams sought funding and 60% of those received some funding in 2014: <br /> Type of Funding Amount Number of companies <br /> receiving <br /> Friends & Family $ 160,000 3 <br /> Grants $ 399,000 4 Companies, 5 Grants <br /> Prizes $ 16,000 1 <br /> Angel $ 1,075,000 4 <br /> Venture Capital $ 2,000,000 1 <br /> Crowd Funding $ 35,000 1 <br /> 2014 Total $ 3,685,000 <br /> The 24 teams surveyed now employ a total of 94 individuals in full or part time paid <br /> position, 73 of those jobs were created in the 2014 calendar year. <br /> • Impact of Launch on their venture: 8 <br /> • $35,568 spent in downtown bars and restaurants while working at Launch. <br /> • 31% of teams collaborated with another Launch venture <br /> • 86% of teams benefitted from 3 or more strategic introductions. The survey <br /> for 2015 will be completed in January 2016. <br /> In addition to directly supporting the 49 ventures that have taken up residence at <br /> Launch and participated in the 22 week accelerator program, Launch has also <br /> become the hub for start-up activity in the area. We typically host at least one event <br /> per week that includes entrepreneurs who are not residents. Some examples are 1 <br /> million cups, Health 2.0, NC Idea Fund's Idea Pitch, Triangle Start-Up Week, Start- <br /> Up weekend, Patriot Bootcamp, Global Entrepreneurship Week, etc. This has raised <br /> the profile of our area as a place for start-ups. <br /> Some of our successes: <br /> 1) Keona Health (Cohort 0) — Keona Health joined LCH in May 2015 with 1 <br /> person working full time in the business. In their initial few months at LCH <br /> they closed their first round of outside investment and continued to scale — <br /> expanding number of employees and customers. LCH was successful in <br /> helping Keona move into some temporary university space as they closed on <br /> their larger funding round ($2 million). Today Keona employs 8 people and <br /> has a multi-year lease on office space at Europa Center. <br />