A VC Fund In Maine With Job Creation At Its Core

Not many enterprise finds have the creation of excellent jobs because the centerpiece of their mission and technique. However that’s precisely the main focus of Brunswick, Me-based CEI Ventures. The agency lately closed its fifth fund, with a complete increase of $21.5 million.

A subsidiary of Coastal Enterprises Inc., a non-profit neighborhood improvement monetary establishment, 26 year-old CEI Ventures’ strategy is predicated on its father or mother’s mannequin for creating employment. Known as the Good Jobs Framework, it focuses on such parts as making certain that firms pay their frontline employees a residing wage acceptable for his or her explicit location and supply fundamental advantages, like medical health insurance and paid day off, in an atmosphere of respect with, for instance, common scheduling notices and efficiency evaluations. “It’s our perception that each enterprise can profit from this whatever the business,” says Chandler Jones, the fund’s managing director.

Devoted Crew

To that finish, there’s a three-to-four-person staff devoted to working with portfolio firms to pinpoint areas the place they need assistance and develop and put in place methods to handle these points, which means every part from revamping job descriptions to restructuring pay.

Take Piali De, CEO of Portland, Me.-based Senscio Techniques. Her firm, which she based in 2010, has a platform that helps Medicare recipients residing with complicated persistent circumstances handle their well being. It combines sensor knowledge with AI know-how to evaluate people’ adherence to well being care plans, speaking with sufferers to ensure they’re following directions and notifying medical doctors, amongst different capabilities.

Earlier than closing on a $600.000 funding six months in the past, De labored with CEI to determine how one can present medical health insurance to the corporate’s geographically dispersed workers. Then, they tackled the matter of hiring a extra numerous workforce within the Maine headquarters. With that in thoughts, they revamped job descriptions and the interview course of to assist them attain out to a broader inhabitants. “We maintain individuals from all walks of life,” says De. “I need our workforce to be as numerous as our members.”

A Partial Elevate

The ultimate shut was preceded by a primary, partial increase of $14.8 million in March 2021. (Buyers embody a mixture of people, foundations and neighborhood financial improvement entities and banks).

Since that point, the fund has invested in seven early or growth-stage firms, with plans to work with seven or eight extra. Many, although not all, are based mostly in Maine, with a socially-beneficial services or products. Up to now, the portfolio firms, based on CEI Ventures, have both utterly or partly met their workforce objectives. For instance, as of June, the typical entry stage wage was $26 an hour and all firms provided medical health insurance, in addition to such advantages as inventory choice or retirement financial savings plans.

CEI Ventures has raised over $67 million since its founding and invested in 67 firms with investments usually starting from $500,000 to $2 million. In response to the agency, that’s resulted within the creation of two,800 jobs in areas and amongst populations usually ignored by conventional VCs.