Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF)
In this newsletter, we are thrilled to announce some exciting news for Cortado to kick off the year. We start by highlighting AJ Jack on his promotion to CEO at Heritage Trust. Next up is an announcement about our new investment in Drov Technologies. Following the announcement, we highlight our accomplishments in 2020 and announce our recent MOU with I-CCEW. We also share a helpful resource for entrepreneurs in Cooley GO’s document generator. We close the newsletter with a job posting from one of our portfolio companies and information on Forward OKC.
What Lies Ahead:
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LP Highlight: AJ Jack
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Cortado Announces New Investment In Drov Technologies
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2020 Highlights
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Cortado Signs MOU With I-CCEW
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Managing Partner Nathaniel Harding On #OPNAskAnAngel Podcast
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Discover This: Cooley GO Document Generator
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MITO Is Hiring!
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Forward OKC
LP Highlight: AJ Jack
For our next investor highlight, we congratulate AJ Jack on his promotion to CEO of Heritage Trust Company. Before his promotion, Jack spent five years as vice president, director of development and marketing, before being named chief development officer in 2018 and assuming the responsibility of marketing, sales and business development for Argent Financial Group’s entire 12-state footprint. Heritage Trust Company is a subsidiary of fiduciary wealth management firm Argent Financial Group and offers a wide range of fiduciary-based services and resources.
Read more about him here.
Cortado Announces New Investment In Drov Technologies
Cortado Ventures is excited to announce it has funded Drov Technologies, based in Oklahoma City. The Seed investment from Cortado is enabling Drov to continue testing its flagship product, the AirBoxOne™. The Oklahoma City-based company is currently testing the AirBoxOne on about 75 trailers with one of the country’s largest fleets. The system has already been installed at four national trailer manufacturers.
AirBoxOne is an all-in-one Internet of Things (IoT) solution that enables a safer, more efficient, and fully “smart” trailer. The AirBoxOne device is integrated with a variety of sensors around the trailer to provide drivers and fleet managers a comprehensive snapshot of what’s going on with the trailer at any given point in time.
“Innovation begins with disruption, and Drov Technologies will disrupt the trucking industry with its robust, feature-rich smart trailer solution,” Nathaniel Harding said.
To read more about Drov Technologies in “The Oklahoman”, click here.
2020 Highlights
Cortado Ventures’ meteoric momentum since launching in May illustrates how Oklahomans are serious about investing and building a future for Oklahoma companies. Our success wouldn’t be possible without the support of our investors, stakeholders developing a support network for innovators, and outstanding entrepreneurs solving complex challenges. While 2020 was an exciting year, we look forward to all of the new opportunities 2021 has in store.
Cortado Signs MOU With I-CCEW
Cortado Ventures and The Ronnie K. Irani Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth (I-CCEW) entered into a memorandum of understanding to mutually promote the diversification of Oklahoma’s economy through the success of its most promising startups, technologies, and entrepreneurs. I-CCEW is the state’s largest innovation consultancy, hiring 80-100 interns per year to develop early-stage business and technology concepts. Cortado and I-CCEW will work together to enhance the pipeline of fundable technology startups in Oklahoma, provide research and support to promising early-stage startups, provide outstanding experiential learning opportunities to University of Oklahoma students through work with local entrepreneurs, and promote a sense of collaboration in Oklahoma’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Managing Partner Nathaniel Harding On #OPNAskAnAngel Podcast
Cortado Managing Partner Nathaniel Harding recently joined Jeffery Potvin on a recent episode of The Open People Network: #OPNAskAnAngel podcast to discuss what he looks for in a startup. Harding went on to talk about how Oklahoma’s startup ecosystem growth and development have made a way for entrepreneurs and early-stage companies. Listen to the podcast episode featuring Nathaniel
Discover This: Cooley GO Document Generator
This month, we’re sharing a helpful resource for entrepreneurs: Cooley GO. Cooley GO offers a wide range of legal resources to entrepreneurs of all sizes, including the ability to generate core legal and financing documents. Cooley GO is managed by Cooley’s leading emerging companies and venture capital practice, which advises 6,000+ innovative, high-growth companies, from pre-formation founder teams to many of the most sophisticated tech companies in the world. Entrepreneurs can use the document generator for formation and funding in a user-friendly format. Check them out here.
MITO Is Hiring!
Our portfolio company MITO is looking for a Material Applications Engineer to join their Stillwater, Oklahoma team. Interested? You can find more details and apply here.
Forward OKC
We are proud to share our involvement as a supporter of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber’s Forward OKC initiative. Forward OKC was established to create quality jobs, increase capital investment, retain existing business and improve per capita income. Through four five-year cycles, this dynamic economic development effort has produced results far exceeding expectations, repositioning Oklahoma City as one of the top economic development site locations in the country.
The Forward OKC initiative created more than 100,000 new jobs, reached over $6 billion in capital investment, and developed a dynamic bioscience strategy that has assisted with growing the Oklahoma Health Center and startup companies in life sciences. Read more here.
Close
For investors seeking more information about investing in Cortado Ventures, please contact investors@cortado.ventures.