The City of Kelowna is looking to solidify its sponsorship of a program that champions Okanagan entrepreneurs.
The Accelerate Okanagan OKGN Angel Summit brings together start-up tech businesses and investors every year to take part in a 10-week program that sees the eventual winner receive an investment of up to $250,000.
The city has, for the past four years, contributed $4,000 annually to the organization, with the money coming from council contingency funds.
In approving support for the 2023 summit, councillors asked staff if there might be another, more reliable funding source to draw from.
“I think it would be advantageous for us to look at other options so that we have more of a consistent basis of funding,” said Coun. Loyal Wooldridge.
Council directed staff to research possible different avenues of funding to support the OKGN Angel Summit in the future.
Since its inception in 2019, the Summit has:
- trained 74 angel investors (22% of whom are women);
- supported/trained 168 companies;
- established four investment funds that distributed $580,000 in direct investment which in turn leveraged $22.6 million in indirect investment.
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@GaryBarnes109
gary.barnes@kelownacapnews.com
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