About This Fund
The Elevate Capital Innovation Gap Fund is Oregon's first public-private commercialization gap fund, managed by Elevate Capital, a Portland-based inclusive venture capital firm dedicated to funding underrepresented founders and science-based innovators across the state. The fund was launched in 2021 through a partnership between Elevate Capital and Business Oregon (Oregon's economic development agency), with co-sponsorship from the Oregon Innovation Council (Oregon InC) Commercialization Gap Fund program. It represents a pioneering public-private model designed to bridge the commercialization valley of death—the capital gap between early scientific discovery and first commercial demonstration—for deep-tech and research-based startups in Oregon's key traded-sector industries.
The Innovation Gap Fund deploys capital into early-stage, science and research-based startups developing innovations in Oregon's priority sectors, including bioscience and life sciences, cleantech and sustainability, advanced materials, healthcare, and natural resources. The fund is managed through Elevate Capital's differentiated lens of investing in diverse and underestimated founders, with a strong emphasis on backing women-led, minority-led, and underrepresented entrepreneurs. The fund provides both financial capital and active mentorship and commercialization support, helping portfolio companies bridge from laboratory stage to first commercial demonstration and ultimately attract private venture capital. Check sizes range from USD 50,000 to USD 250,000, reflecting the fund's early-stage mandate.
Since its launch, the Elevate Capital Innovation Gap Fund has built a portfolio of approximately 30 companies, including six startups funded in the first cohort across sectors such as healthtech, cleantech, and natural resources. Portfolio companies have collectively raised over USD 25.5 million in follow-on equity financing and secured USD 14.7 million in additional non-dilutive grant support, creating more than 151 jobs, with 104 based in Oregon. Approximately 58% of portfolio companies have diverse leadership, with 37% led by women and 43% led by minority founders. The fund's success led Business Oregon to select Elevate Capital as fund manager for a second Commercialization Gap Fund (Gap Fund II) in August 2022, continuing the public-private partnership model.