Green Mountain Accelerator Fund Makes First Investment

Source: The Center on Rural innovation

The Green Mountain Accelerator Fund (GMAF), an investment fund dedicated to supporting rural Vermont tech startups, has invested $75,000 in Rutland-based Tacitly, Inc. This is the first investment made by the recently launched GMAF, which is managed by VTTA member Center on Rural Innovation, and aims to spark scalable entrepreneurship and tech job creation in rural Vermont by investing in early-stage tech startups.

Tacitly, a company with a team of five, specializes in creating augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology for training purposes. Their innovative solution provides immersive training experiences, ideal for situations where hands-on equipment is either costly or easily damaged. Their debut product is an AR training environment designed for nurses to practice using code carts. Recently, they secured their first sale with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

“We are excited to support Tacitly with the inaugural investment from GMAF. The team at Tacitly has developed a technology with wide-ranging applications and substantial growth potential. Their effort is representative of the vibrant tech startup scene emerging in rural Vermont,” stated Jay Bockhaus, managing partner of the CORI Innovation Fund.

“The team is absolutely honored to be the first investment by the Green Mountain Accelerator Fund. At our early stage, most venture capital firms are too risk-averse to invest. Having an early-stage fund like GMAF in Vermont allows us and other local startups to continue growing and bridge the gap to being ready for investment by other firms,” stated Jeffrey DeJarnette, founder of Tacitly. “We are excited to see what the future in XR training brings.” 

The capital investments made by the Green Mountain Accelerator Fund will facilitate the transformation of innovative, early-stage Vermont-based businesses into thriving companies and drive tech entrepreneurial ecosystem development through the state’s rural areas. GMAF is an “evergreen” $3 million pre-seed investment vehicle capitalized by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) and was created in partnership with the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) and the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA).

About the Center on Rural Innovation

The Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) is a national nonprofit committed to advancing economic prosperity in rural America through the creation of inclusive tech economy ecosystems that support scalable entrepreneurship and tech job creation. Established in 2017, CORI is at the heart of a dynamic social enterprise focused on closing the rural opportunity gap. The organization partners with a taxable nonprofit, Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc. (RISI), and a seed fund, the CORI Innovation Fund, focused on early-stage technology companies located in rural areas. For more information, visit www.ruralinnovation.us.