Fast Growing Companies with a Commitment to their Communities
Current Investments
Realized Investments
Bhakti is a natural beverage company that manufactures chai concentrates sold in the food service, natural retail and conventional retail channels. Bhakti's commitment to fresh, sustainably sourced ingredients as well the company's triple bottom line business practices have helped create a strong and growing values-driven brand. It creates significant demonstration effects as a female founded B-Corp with supply chain best practices (fair trade, Non-GMO, and Organic).
SchoolRunner
SchoolRunner is an enterprise technology solution for K-12 schools that aggregates student data across academics, behavior, attendance and communications into a single easy to use platform. It empowers teachers and administrators at more than 80 schools and across 40,000 students to more easily act upon student data, thereby facilitating deeper levels of data driven instruction and helping to boost student outcomes at scale.
TeamSnap
TeamSnap is a SaaS-based sports team and league management solution that streamlines administration, registration, scheduling and communication for players, parents, coaches and league administrators. It facilitates healthy lifestyles for its 20 million users, especially to parental engagement with youth sports participation. TeamSnap is consistently recognized for its exemplary workplace environment (named one of America’s best places to work by Outside Magazine for the last three years).
KMLABS
Kapteyn Murnane (KM) Labs develops and manufactures industry-leading ultrafast, short wavelength laser technologies with applications in many areas including the semiconductor, micromachining and bioimaging markets. Impact through our investment in KM Labs will come through supporting the commercialization and monetization of IP jointly owned by the company and University of Colorado.
Galvanize
Galvanize operates campuses that provide full-stack software development and data science courses. The company also provides transformational technical education to corporations. It utilizes its differentiated alternative education platform to upskill workers in preparation for modern careers in areas of high demand by employers. Thousands of graduates to date have enjoyed a market leading placement rate of 80% and an average first year salary post-graduation of $70-100K depending on program completed.
SecureSet Academy
SecureSet Academy provides high intensity, immersive programs that teach core technical skills to prepare students for meaningful jobs in cybersecurity. The company provides an accelerated, skills focused pathway to successful and long-lasting careers in a cybersecurity industry that is currently facing severe talent shortage. It has hundreds of graduates to date, including transitioning military or veterans. A placement rate of 90% and an average step up in graduate salary of $30K.
Chocolove
Chocolove manufactures and sells premium natural chocolate bars and other natural chocolate products. It adheres to the highest sustainability and ethical standards for its sourcing of chocolate and other ingredients as well as commits to buying as many products and services as possibly locally. Chocolove is a contributor to the World Cocoa Foundation, and has achieved certifications including Rain Forest Alliance, Fair Trade, Organic, Non-GMO and SQF Rating of Excellence. Chocolove is representative of the continued growth of Colorado as a center of excellence and support for natural and organic food entrepreneurs.
CirrusMD
CirrusMD is a healthcare technology company that enables providers and payers to deliver a virtual care for their patients and members primarily through asynchronous communication methods such as text or chat. It enables value-based virtual care delivery with no out-of-pocket cost to patients, resulting in higher utilization, improved health outcomes and increased cost savings compared to traditional outsourced telemedicine. It currently covers 4.4 million lives including 1.6 million Medicaid patients and 900k veterans.
Maria Empanada
Maria Empanada is a high-growth fast casual restaurant concept. The company sells artisanal, hand finished empanadas at its five retail stores across the Denver metro area. CIF's investment in Maria Empanada represents the first institutional capital backing for a female, immigrant founder and CEO. Supporting female and minority-led businesses that have the potential for high growth, profitability and impact is central to CIF's mission.
Keystone Tower Systems
Keystone Tower Systems has developed and patented a novel and highly efficient technology to produce large steel wind turbine towers using an automated tapered continuous spiral welding technique. This novel manufacturing process will significantly lower the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for wind energy while opening up new geographies for development. (U.S Dept. of Energy estimates that the technology can potentially increase more than double the current volume of U.S landmass suitable for wind energy development).
Hope Foods
Based in Louisville, CO, Hope Foods is one of the leading dip brands in the U.S. Hope Foods has grown rapidly, expanded its product lines and become the leading organic hummus brand in the natural channel. All Hope products are manufactured in small batches using high quality and organic ingredients in a cold pasteurization process, so they retain peak flavor, texture and nutrition without adding artificial preservatives. Hope is a premier and visible player in the Colorado ecosystem. CIF's support of the state's best natural food entrepreneurs will help those companies contribute to healthier communities.
Friday Health Plans
Friday Health Plans provides affordable, comprehensive health insurance plans to individuals and small groups through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges in Colorado and New Mexico. Friday offers health insurance across Colorado, including in many rural areas with only one other health option. With its operations center in Alamosa, Colorado, Friday employs nearly 100 San Luis Valley residents. Friday represents CIF's first investment in a company with critical operations outside the Front Range, supporting our goal of economic development and critical health infrastructure in under-served communities.
Tortuga AgTech
Founded in 2016, Tortuga AgTech's mission is to build a healthier society and a thriving ecosystem through smarter farming. Tortuga leverages robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, sensors, and computer vision to provide harvesting and other services to fruit farmers. Tortuga AgTech empowers growers by using robots that performs a variety of labor-intensive tasks on the farm, with an emphasis on harvest. Tortuga's technology helps farmers grow healthier, fresher, and more environmentally sustainable produce.
interviewIA
interviewIA is the first hiring workflow management technology to bring interviewer support, HR transformation, structure, and data-driven interview outcomes into one, fully integrated, easy-to-use cloud application. interviewIA uses deep learning Intelligence Amplification (IA) technology and behavioral science to redefine the method of interviewing. interviewIA is committed to the reduction of human errors in the hiring process (bias), improved collaboration, improved candidate experience, and increased trust, transparency, and control of the hiring process.
Honest Jobs
Honest Jobs is the largest fair-chance employment platform in the United States. The company provides an online marketplace that connects employers with job seekers who have a criminal conviction. Honest Jobs has developed a proprietary matching technology - ConflixAI - which shows how compatible a job is with a specific criminal background, resulting in faster placement and better employment outcomes.
Chamba
Chamba is an employment and networking app designed to connect Latino job seekers with employers. The Chamba mobile app is bilingual, inclusive and easy to use, enabling fast adoption within the Latino community. The company's mission is to facilitate and simplify the employment opportunities available for Latinos.
Project Canary
Project Canary is a SaaS-based data analytics company focused on accurate corporate climate ESG data for emission-intensive industrial companies. Project Canary scores responsible operations, delivering independent emission profiles via high-fidelity continuous monitoring technology to provide actionable environmental performance data. Formed as a Public Benefit Corporation, Project Canary’s Denver-based team of scientists, engineers, and seasoned industry operators identify and quantify areas to reduce emissions.
Barn Owl Tech
Colorado Springs based Barn Owl Tech makes remote asset smart monitoring simple and accessible from anywhere with its easy-to-use, vertically integrated surveillance solution, which includes high resolution cameras with cellular connectivity, cloud based data, and instant alert systems. Barn Owl saves time and money for remote asset managers, including agricultural operators, municipalities, and government and conservation agencies, who otherwise rely on manual labor for the surveillance of property and animals.