Ollin Ventures Announces $20 Million Fund to Invest in 50 New Startups
Pictured in header: Corbin Church, Adam Campbell, Lincoln Archibald, Thomas Wilkinson, and Stephen Smith
Ollin Ventures, a firm based in Lindon, Utah, with an emphasis on investing in technology startups from Utah County, announces a new $20 million pre-seed and seed fund. The plan is to invest between $250,000 and $750,000 into 50 Utah County startups.
Ollin primarily focuses on pre-seed and seed stage technology companies with a partially industry-agnostic approach to sourcing their deals. Tom Wilkinson, Founder and Managing Partner, said, “We focus on enterprise IT, but ultimately we’re searching for companies where we feel a product or a service will have a massive impact.”
In 2018, Tom Wilkinson founded Ollin Ventures. “The founding of the fund is a culmination of my life doing deals and inviting my friends to invest alongside me,” he said.
Wilkinson brings a hands-on approach and entrepreneurial talent to create value for the companies in his portfolio. He started his career at Vivint in 2012, where he quickly became a regional sales director. During his time at Vivint, Wilkinson recruited over 200 sales representatives and helped the company go public.
Throughout the last ten years, Wilkinson has been an angel investor in over 25 different startups. Wilkinson “mostly focused on startups coming out of BYU.” He sourced many of these deals through the BYU Technology Transfer Office, which helps the campus community to commercialize the technologies they develop. One of the companies that he invested in is SignGlasses, which produces smart glasses that provide a live feed ASL translation of lectures for deaf students.
Stephen Smith, Ollin’s General Partner, explained, “Our strategy is to invest into 50 different companies over the next three years in pre-seed and seed rounds. Our goal is to provide an index-like approach to VC.”
Smith contributes his experience managing investment portfolios in the public markets from Charles Schwab and Navigate Private Wealth. At Navigate Private Wealth, he is part of a team that manages about $400 million.
We reached out to a few of Ollin's limited partners and asked why they wanted to be a part of Ollin.
"My decision to invest in Ollin Ventures was driven by a deep-seated belief in the power of innovation to drive positive change," said Brock Waters, a lead sales representative at Vivint and one of Ollin's LPs. "Ollin Ventures' commitment to supporting visionary entrepreneurs and fostering groundbreaking technologies resonated deeply with me. I saw an opportunity to not only generate returns but also to be a part of something transformative – a catalyst for innovation that can shape the future. Being a limited partner in Ollin Ventures allows me to contribute to a mission I wholeheartedly believe in, one that holds the promise of creating meaningful impact for generations to come."
Regarding becoming an Ollin LP, David Turner said, "I chose to invest in Ollin Ventures due to their unwavering commitment to fostering innovation and driving meaningful societal change. Joining forces with this endeavor offers a distinct opportunity to support visionary entrepreneurs and be a catalyst for transformative impact."
"I have a strong conviction about Ollin Ventures' dedication to nurturing innovation and fostering positive societal impact. Being a part of this endeavor presents a unique opportunity to contribute to transformative change and support visionary entrepreneurs," said Corbin Church, a limited partner in Ollin Ventures.
In addition to the other companies that they source and invest in, Ollin Ventures is uniquely positioned to fund companies from a new incubator at the Pleasant Grove doTERRA campus called Innovation Hub Foundation or, iHub, managed by Corbin Church. iHub is a non-profit incubator that will help entrepreneurs validate their business ideas and assist early-stage startups. Wilkinson said, “Each student business does their first act of charitable giving by giving 2% of their business to the not-for-profit incubator, which will be self-sustaining over time.”
Explaining more about iHub, Wilkinson continued, “It has over 100 mentors signed up, so each startup will be assigned their own mentor team to help them get their business off the ground in addition to providing free legal and accounting.” Most students for the incubator will come from BYU and UVU, but anyone can apply for the incubator regardless of their student status. Their startups will grow within the incubator for a year or two before operating independently.
In regards to how Ollin will invest in these companies, Wilkinson said, “The student businesses are doing their validation with the funding from the incubator, and then we write a check after the validation has been done.”
Both Ollin Ventures and the iHub incubator are deeply committed to growing the innovative tech scene of Utah as they will fund promising ideas, reduce the challenges for startups, and usher in a new wave of companies to Utah’s vibrant technology industry.
To learn more about Ollin Ventures, contact stephensmith@ollinventures.com
To learn more about the iHub incubator or to apply to their program, visit ihubutah.org