Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska has announced it is to partner the Aksarben Discovery Fund, The World Herald has reported.
The Aksarben fund, which was founded by angel investor Jim Young Jr. and Ken Moreano, executive director of the Scott Technology Centre, provides capital to companies emerging from the Lean LaunchPad program at the Aksarben Innovation Initiative.
The Lean Launchpad, which was launched by Yong and Moreano in June, is a ten-week entrepreneurial programme that targets pre-accelerator, pre-incubated companies.
The fund invests between $25,000 and $75,000 in companies to be used for product development and the creation of viable business models.
“I want to use this platform for a different type of investment approach you don’t usually see at the early-stage level,” Young said. “We are looking for qualitative and quantitative data to determine how and when a seed investment is made.”
Blue Cross will look to benefit from relationships with start-ups that have ideas that could be integrated into the insurance industry.
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