presented by UTRF, Three Roots Capital, and Best Behavior Creative Club
The first-ever Three Roots Capital, Rise and Grind session featured Vendor Registry®, who recently raised a $1.8 million seed round investment. Three Roots Capital CFO, Chris Miller sat down with Chris Van Beke, Co-founder & CEO, Vendor Registry and Geoff Robson, Fund Manager at The Lighthouse Fund, to learn more about their entrepreneurial journey.
The discussion focused on the fundraising process, due diligence, and interactions between investors and portfolio companies. The interview concluded with an engaging lighting round of “Take It or Leave It” where Van Beke and Robson had to agree or disagree with a series of statements on entrepreneurship and raising capital.
Rise and Grind is a collaborative program by UTRF, Three Roots Capital, and Best Behavior Creative Club to discuss access to capital and entrepreneurship with the University of Tennessee entrepreneurship community. The sessions offer an opportunity to network and learn more about the entrepreneurial resources available to local startup companies.
These informational sessions address the challenges that entrepreneurs face and offer valuable learning tools and exploration of available resources.
Chris Miller summed it up well, “Being an entrepreneur is difficult and challenging. Some days it feels like it is the raw willpower of the entrepreneur that drives progress in the business. The willingness to each morning “rise and grind” out the things necessary to grow the business and be successful. Rise and Grind is about recognizing that effort, celebrating it, and learning from one another.”
Video of 2-22-17 Rise and Grind Session
Vendor Registry Press Release via PRNewswire
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 1, 2017
Local governments have a new ally in “doing more with less.” Vendor Registry®, the fastest growing local government purchasing platform and marketplace, announced today it has raised a $1.8 million seed round in order to continue its rapid expansion. The seed round included Allos Alpha, Chattanooga Renaissance Fund, The Lighthouse Fund, Cantos Ventures and VentureSouth.
“Allos Alpha is excited to be joining forces with Vendor Registry,” said John McIlwraith, managing director of Allos Ventures. “We believe that local government purchasing departments will increasingly seek to modernize, and based on the impressive momentum that Chris and his team have achieved with modest resources we are confident that Vendor Registry’s SaaS platform and marketplace will be the standard.”
Vendor Registry’s SaaS platform and marketplace is simplifying the $1.6 trillion local government purchasing market by standardizing and centralizing traditionally paper-intensive processes. Hundreds of local governments and thousands of vendors across 20 states now seamlessly connect to ensure compliance and to generate new revenues while driving more competitive pricing and reducing costs. ELGL recently named name Vendor Registry #4 on its Top 50 Local Government Companies list. The company was founded by Chris Van Beke and Brian Strong in 2013 and is an alumnus of LaunchTN’s master accelerator program.
“We are excited to be joining a very strong institutional and individual angel investor syndicate to fund Vendor Registry’s seed round,” says Geoff Robson of The Lighthouse Fund. “Our team has known Chris and Brian for a number of years and are excited about joining them as they create greater efficiency in the government purchasing market. We look forward to helping the company serve an ever increasing number of governments and vendors as it continues to grow.”
About Vendor Registry
Vendor Registry is a comprehensive SaaS platform that connects local governments and vendors and streamlines traditionally manual purchasing processes in order to generate new revenues for vendors and suppliers, decrease costs for government and institutional purchasing departments and save valuable time for all parties involved. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, Vendor Registry was founded by Chris Van Beke and Brian Strong in 2013. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.vendorregistry.com.