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Maine Venture Fund board chair Brien Walton.
Updated: June 1, 2022
Maine Venture Fund partners with Waterville accelerator to boost startups
Maine Venture Fund is teaming up with Dirigo Labs, a Waterville-based startup accelerator launched by the Central Maine Growth Council, to boost capital investments in central Maine startups.
Dirigo Labs will help get the word out to companies about equity financing options available through the Maine Venture Fund. The fund will participate in Dirigo Labs accelerator programming and work directly with companies to help them understand the fundraising process and identify sources of capital in Maine and beyond.
Maine Venture Fund is already engaging with several of the companies enrolled in the Dirigo Labs inaugural accelerator class in activities from general fundraising education to capital investment evaluation. The 12-member class includes Brunswick rocket company bluShift Aerospace and a Milford-based tenant screening platform called TrustedRentr.
MVF said it expects to leverage its new microfund program to offer a wider range of equity funding options to the companies at Dirigo Labs and in the wider central Maine region. The microfund program plans to offer smaller investments, of $25,000 to $100,0000, versus MVF's traditional $100,000 to $300,000 investments, to help promising earlier-stage companies.
"Partnering with Dirigo Labs follows the MVF Board's strategic priority of expanding impact across Maine," said MVF Chair Brien Walton.
"As a lean team, MVF can be more efficient by working to support existing regional partners rather than recreating those resources. The relationship with Dirigo Labs and the Central Maine Growth Council is a perfect example of this type of partnership, to better connect the state's resources with dynamic leaders on the front lines of growing central Maine's economy."
Dirigo Labs, led by Managing Director Susan Ruhlin, is supported by several organizations, academic institutions and investment firms.
"As Maine's venture capital fund, it made sense to ally with Maine Venture Fund to ensure that participating Dirigo Labs startups have direct access to state funding that seeks to support high growth companies," Ruhlin said.
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Dirigo Labs Managing Director Susan Ruhlin.
"Maine Venture Fund's demonstrated success in the state over the past 25 years bolsters the potential for new economic development organizations like Dirigo Labs to gain a foothold and thrive over the next 25 years in better serving the central Maine region," she added.
Earlier this year, Ruhlin predicted a "convergence of fantastic ideas and businesses that are going to launch out of Dirigo Labs."
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