Cleveland Venture Capital Investing Millions In Cincinnati Startups

A Cleveland venture capital firm has made two big investments in Cincinnati startup companies, with several more on the way.

JumpStart just closed its $20 million NEXT Fund. It has already made eight investments out of that fund, including two in Greater Cincinnati, after holding a first close of the fund a little more than a year ago. It didn’t announce any of those deals until now. Its first two Cincinnati investments were in tech startups Lisnr and Enosix.

“They both have great CEOs, great leadership teams and great solutions,” JumpStart CEO Ray Leach said

JumpStart also has a $10 million fund that invests in women- and minority-owned firms throughout Ohio. Combine the two and it has $30 million it can invest in Ohio, and it’s got its eyes on Cincinnati for much of that.

“We’re getting ready to do a bunch more,” JumpStart CEO Ray Leach said. “We’ll probably do one in the next 30 days in Cincinnati. And we’ll probably do five to 10 in the next year or so.”

Read the full story at Cincinnati Business Courier.