Founded in 2008 by Gavin Christensen, Kickstart Seed Fund is a early-stage venture capital fund based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Working with local universities, angel investors, entrepreneurs, venture capital funds, and other key stakeholders, it looks to build a seed fund. Kickstart Seed Fund is the most active investor in Utah.
Kickstart Seed Fund invests in Utah, Arizona, surrounding states, and the Rocky Mountain region of the United States. It invests between $50,000 and $750,000 in across various sectors. Investments include Big Squid, RAGS and MarketDial and exits include Teem, Capshare and GroSocial.
Kickstart Seed Fund has raised a total of $139.2 million across 3 funds. Fund II raised $26 million in 2013, Fund III raised $39.2 million in 2015 and Fund IV raised $74 million in 2018.
Kickstart Collective is a community platform which brings all the knowledge across their networks directly to their portfolio companies and gives their portfolio companies an opportunity to access to each other so they can share knowledge. This is done through their community platform by bringing together CEOs and other executives in their portfolio for forums, learning sessions, and other events throughout the year.
Timeline
Funded Companies
eVisit is a web application that connects primary care providers with their patients.
A company providing businesses a way to streamline their finances and access new credit lines.
Lineagen is a Salt Lake City genetics and diagnostics company providing evaluation services for autism, developmental delay and genetic disorders.
Artemis Health is a Salt Lake City-based company founded in 2013.
An immigration service company, giving assistance in green card application
TriLumina is an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based semiconductor company founded in 2010.
CloudApp is a video and media sharing platform for organizations, enabling employees to create, upload and manage visual content.
Big Squid is an artificial intelligence company founded in 2009.
People
Alex Soffe
CFO
Brandon Beck
Associate
Brianna Bowles
Office Manager
Clarke Miyasaki
Employee
Curt Roberts
Venture Partner
Dalton Wright
Partner
Dave Fryer
Employee
David Carter
Investor
Gavin Christensen
Managing Partner
Jens Beyrich
Employee
Karen Zelnick
Director of Platform
Kyle Harrison
Employee
Landon Ainge
Associate
Minna Wang
Employee
Morgan Davis
Employee
Paul Ahlstrom
Founder
Robb Kunz
Investor
Further reading
Documentaries, videos and podcasts
Companies
AdWallet
Airin
Alianza
Artemis
Banyan
Big Squid
Blue Matador
Blyncsy
Bookly.co
Brainstorm
Bubble
Cake
Campus Founders Fund
Capshare
Catheter Connections
Chargeback
Chat Books
Cheddar Up
Claravine
Conex ED
CoNextions
Converus
Cotopaxi
Data Centers
Direct Scale