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Interstate Fusion Ventures

Impact sector(s)

Technology + Early Stage Venture

About

Originally founded as Akron Fusion Ventures, Interstate Fusion Ventures (IFV) links bi-coastal venture communities to Northeast Ohio early-stage businesses. IFV also seeks to seed opportunities for NEO-based commercial relationships and reciprocal access to unique investment opportunities that otherwise would be inaccessible. New name, same mission.

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Facts & Stats

  • 21 investments to date. 12 NEO founded companies, 9 coastal founded companies.
  • 13 portfolio companies having already raised at increased valuations
  • $500M+ raised by portfolio companies in follow on funding
  • Invested alongside major VCs including M12 (Microsoft Venture Fund, Citi Ventures, Industrious Ventures and Fall Line Capital, to name a few

Notable Successes

Splash Financial is a leading digital lending platform that helps borrowers easily shop and compare financial products from a Splash-powered network of lenders. Company is headquartered in Cleveland. It’s one of the fund’s first investments and impetus for our first close. Company recently raised a $44M Series B led by DST Global, Citi Ventures, and others creating a current portfolio markup of 17X+. BioFlight VR is a virtual reality, end-to-end medical training solutions provider to enhance performance and improve outcomes. Company relocated from Southern California to Akron, Ohio. Interstate was a founding institutional investor and participated in several follow-on investments. Planned convertible note round led by the Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program and BRF out of Louisiana and would establish a 5X+ markup, based on the most recent valuation cap. Pod Foods offers a data-driven approach to streamlining the retailer procurement process with brands while connecting customers to a wider variety of products, including those from “up and coming” brands. The San Francisco founded company was featured in Dec. 15, 2021, edition of Forbes. Interstate received special permission to invest in an oversubscribed seed round led by M12 (Microsoft Ventures), Moment Ventures and others. Also participated in a recent Series A led by Industrious Ventures established a 54% current IRR. Plutoshift is an operational data platform for modern industry that delivers data-driven outcomes with intelligent monitoring of physical infrastructure. Invested in a previously closed round led by Fall Line Capital and have since opened several opportunities, including several prominent NEO companies.

Team

William J. Manby, Jr., Founding & Managing Partner

Bill has spent his entire career in the financial services industry and his whole life as a proud advocate for Akron and Northeast Ohio....

Bill has spent his entire career in the financial services industry and his whole life as a proud advocate for Akron and Northeast Ohio. As a licensed security adviser, Bill connected an impressive collection of clients to a broad range of rewarding investment options. It wasn't long before he began raising money for local projects ranging from a medical device company to a fintech software provider. To date, every one of Bill's projects has either paid off or is still pursuing an exit. This track record of success led to him founding Fund I in late 2016 and has been his focus and passion ever since. In addition to his career accomplishments, Bill has led some of the area's most successful capital campaigns and fundraising efforts for charities including the Akron Rotary Camp. Bill remains dedicated to the community and serves on the board of several non-profits.

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Victoria Tifft, Founding Partner & Senior Advisor

Vicki began her career journey in the US Peace Corps West Africa in the field of infectious disease control. After contracting malaria...

Vicki began her career journey in the US Peace Corps West Africa in the field of infectious disease control. After contracting malaria, she returned to the US with a commitment to finding treatments for diseases around the globe. In 1994, Vicki founded ClinicalRM, a company that now has over 350 employees globally and was acquired by ICON for $40 million in 2016. In 2012, the US Small Business Administration honored Vicki as the National Small Businessperson of the Year

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Mike Rademacher, Founding Partner & Senior Advisor

Mike is a former President of PolyOne Distribution, a $1B division of PolyOne Corporation headquartered in Avon Lake, Ohio. With more than...

Mike is a former President of PolyOne Distribution, a $1B division of PolyOne Corporation headquartered in Avon Lake, Ohio. With more than 40 years of experience working in both large public and small privately owned companies, Mike is a proven leader in the industrial market sector. He successfully led commercial, functional and operational groups primarily in the plastics and chemical industry.

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Apurva Desai, Venture Partner

Digital technology and media executive and entrepreneur with CFO experiences with global media, mobile, and Internet companies in Silicon...

Digital technology and media executive and entrepreneur with CFO experiences with global media, mobile, and Internet companies in Silicon Valley, the Midwest, and Asia. Most recently, CFO for Vuclip (acquired by PCCW) , a leading on demand video streaming media company through its brand Viu in emerging markets of India, Indonesia, South Africa, Dubai, Malaysia. Shepherded the company through 10x revenue and employee growth; equity and debt round raises followed by nine figure strategic M&A (acquired by PCCW- large Hong Kong based public company) . Built career foundation at industry giants Ernst & Young, Intel and Yahoo! (Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger) followed by experiences at growing, scaling companies: mobile gaming public pure play Glu Mobile (acquired by Electronic Arts) , venture backed startup Scrapblog (acquired by Mixbook), pre-IPO digital media company Exponential Interactive (S-1 filed). Currently, Apurva is the CEO and Founder of Sarvian, Inc.; a management and CFO & M&A financial consulting and advisory firm. His clients include SAAS technology and media companies in the supply chain, edtech, healthcare, food and beverage, collaboration software and media space. Apurva also invests, advises and mentors startups, accelerators, and venture funds around the world including companies in Silicon Valley, the Midwest, UK, and India.

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