Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF)
This month we highlight the Oklahoma City Innovation District and their 1st annual breakfast on December 1st. Trent Smith is featured in our LP highlight. We announce our most recent investments in two innovative companies, Exum and Dex. Our portfolio companies have had a busy and productive year, and we share some recent highlights. Susan Moring is named Principal at Cortado. We close with a wrap-up of a very successful Global Entrepreneurship Week in Oklahoma.
What Lies Ahead:
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Builder Highlight: Innovation District
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LP Highlight: Trent Smith
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Cortado Funds Exum
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Cortado Funds Dex
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Q3 Portfolio Updates
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Susan Moring Promotion
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Global Entrepreneurship Week Wrap-Up
Builder Highlight: Innovation District
The Oklahoma City Innovation District is designed to be an epicenter for collaboration, innovation, opportunity, and economic growth. Its purpose is to capitalize on OKC’s dominant industries; investing in high-quality places where research institutions, firms, and talent concentrate and connect, and the district will support the entire region in being more competitive, both in attracting investment and the national and local talent necessary to continue Oklahoma’s economic expansion.
The Oklahoma City Innovation District will host its Annual Breakfast on December 1, 2021 from 8-10a at the Omni Oklahoma City. The breakfast will feature three experts on the cutting edge of venture capital, healthcare, and social impact innovation. Register for the event here.
LP Highlight: Trent Smith
Our investors (called “limited partners” or “LPs”) come from many different backgrounds as entrepreneurs, executives and operators throughout the region and beyond. We highlight Trent Smith, a visionary business leader, public servant, and futurist with an eye for what’s next. His acuity was first on display as tight end for the Sooners when he led the 2000 Oklahoma football team to a national championship.
Why did you invest in Cortado?
I believe that when you are living and working in your UA, unique ability, that great things usually happen. Nathaniel found his UA in Cortado and I knew right away I was going to be the first LP to write a check.
What do you see happening in the entrepreneurial/venture space in Oklahoma?
I think that the pandemic has created the greatest opportunity for creators, seekers, risk-takers, and innovators since the mid-90’s. It’s almost a certainty that our society is on the brink of technological changes that we can’t even fathom today. Thanks to Cortado, Oklahoma is guaranteed to have a seat at the table.
Cortado Funds Exum
Cortado Ventures has funded Exum. Exum Instruments brings high-performance, solid-sample chemical characterization out of the traditional laboratory environment. Exum’s first product, the Massbox, is a superior mass spectrometer in not only cost, but more importantly ease-of-use, size, and capability, and it enables industries that are solving world-scale problems. Cortado is poised to add value with manufacturing expertise and connections in sector use cases including oil & gas, life sciences, and aerospace.
Cortado Funds Dex
Cortado is excited to announce its new investment in Edmond-based Dex. Dex provides an innovative method for removing liquids from mature horizontal oil wells, by creating low bottom hole pressure which facilitates a maximum production rate and extends the total economic life of the well, and accelerates the well’s current revenue stream. Cortado’s pre-seed investment enables Dex Pump’s pilot test with its first customer to demonstrate the pump’s impact on a well’s profitability.
Q3 Portfolio Updates
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MITO Materials, who generated their first commercial revenue earlier this year now has their materials in two commercially available in-market products. They hit all of the milestones of their seed round in less time than expected, and founder Haley Keith was recently inducted into Oklahoma State University’s Young Alumni Hall of Fame
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Sway received nearly $300K in non-dilutive funding through a federal SBIR grant and an OCAST grant to support research on a new use case of their technology. They continue to expand the customer base for their newly released clinical product.
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Recuro Health is making waves as a thought leader in digital health. They’ve been featured in more than 1,400 publications – including Forbes, five recorded interviews by leading industry media, a new white paper, 11 press releases, and a series of monthly blogs. They also completed an acquisition of MyLifeIQ in Q3 to bring epigenetics & precision medicine to their expanding suite of digital health solutions.
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Socialwyze surpassed an important milestone of 1,000 users on their platform, and has now paid out over $100K in earnings to workers on their platform. They are actively pursuing additional pilot projects across the U.S., including here in Oklahoma.
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Boddle was recently named as the Tulsa investment recipient of Steve Case Rise of Rest Tour 9.0 Road Trip, an event intended to showcase and provide investment to some of the best startups in non-coastal cities around the U.S.
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And congrats to Respond Flow, PatchRx, and Boddle, who were all featured on the Tech Tribune’s 2022 “Best Startups in Tulsa” list
Susan Moring Promotion
Cortado is delighted to announce Susan Moring’s promotion to Principal. Susan joined the Cortado team as an associate just over a year ago, and has quickly scaled the ranks and proven her indispensable contributions as Cortado has grown. Thank you for all you do, Susan!
Global Entrepreneurship Week Wrap-Up
Last week, we celebrated innovators and startups all across the state during Global Entrepreneurship Week. We’d like to extend a special thank you to Launch OKC Metro, 36 Degrees North, and all the other community partners that contributed to a great week of events and programming. Some GEW stats…
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36 events across Oklahoma over a 5 day span
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An estimated 1000+ attendees involved in GEW
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Cortado team members participated in 8 of the events and interacted with 50+ Oklahoma-based entrepreneurs
…and some GEW pics!
