Steve Case Commits Up to $1.1M in Investments for Google Demo Day Startups  

Revolution CEO Challenges Investors and ‘Rise of the Rest’ Communities to Help 11 Participating Startups Raise $1M in 100 Days

WASHINGTON, D.C. & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Today at the third annual Google for Entrepreneurs Demo Day, Steve Case, chairman and CEO of Revolution and co-founder of AOL, challenged the 11 participating startups to raise $1 million each in 100 days. If they are successful, he promises to invest $100,000 in each. Case hopes his challenge will encourage investors and startup communities in ‘Rise of the Rest’ regions to support the startups from their regions on their quest to raise $1 million.

The 11 startups that participated hail from around North America including several “Rise of the Rest” cities including Austin, Chicago, Denver, Durham, Halifax, Nashville, Detroit, Minneapolis, Mexico City, Montreal, and Waterloo.

Revolution’s ‘Rise of the Rest’ with Steve Case is a nationwide effort to invest in and support entrepreneurs in emerging startup ecosystems similar to the majority of the cities represented at today’s Demo Day. Since launching the initiative in 2014, Case and the Revolution team have visited 19 cities and invested a total of $2 million in startups located outside of the well-known Silicon Valley and New York areas, not including previous investments Case has made in participating Google Demo Day companies.

This announcement follows announcements that Case made at Google for Entrepreneurs Demo Day in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, he surprised the ten participating entrepreneurs with a $100,000 investment in each of their companies, and in 2015, he announced $100,000 surprise investments in the four female-founded companies participating that year.

“Last year, more than three-quarters of venture capital investment went to three states: California, Massachusetts and New York,” said Case. “I’ve seen firsthand that the next wave of transformative startups can come from anywhere in the US.”

This year, Google for Entrepreneurs partnered with 10 tech hubs around North America forming its North American Tech Hub Network. Each Tech Hub was responsible for nominating three startups from their community to pitch their companies to an audience of investors, and receive feedback from judges, which included Case, Frank Chen, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Bedy Yang, managing partner at 500 Startups.

Contact:
Meredith Balenske, Revolution
202-680-2479
meredith.balenske@revolution.com