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KI Catalyst Fund

Founders

About

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Criteria

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Round: We seek early stage investment round opportunities.

• We prefer to invest through SAFE notes (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). Check founder resources section to see our template.
• We prefer to co-invest in a minimum round size of $200,000 (including our $50,000 investment). </aside>

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Team: We invest in startups affiliated to the Illinois Tech community. We invest in teams with strong founder-market fit, preferably with one technical co-founder and there should be an affiliation to the Illinois Tech community.

Here are examples of what would constitute an affiliation:

• Student, faculty or alum founder .
• Current or former participants of Kaplan Institute Startup Accelerator or IL-TechForward Lab to Launch program.
• Illinois Tech alums or students in key roles. </aside>

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Market: A clearly defined, scalable market supported by:

• Bottom-up TAM analysis including promising CAGR metrics.
• Detailed customer segmentation. </aside>

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Differentiation: We invest in startups that are able to leverage their unique tech, network effects, or industry insights to accelerate growth.

• Teams with a unique perspective on the market you are going after and an intuitive sense of what your customers want.
• Products built for defensible positioning, such as proprietary technology, network effects. </aside>

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Traction: Evidence of real-world usage, strong sales pipeline, customer engagement and foundational product deployment.

• A strong sales pipeline with real customers or high-potential prospects.
• Defined pricing/revenue models.
• Compelling go-to-market strategy.
• Validated acquisition channels (funnel, conversion rates, unit economics).
• Product architecture positioned for scalability. </aside>

🚀 Think your startup fits the criteria?

Benefits.

By joining the KI Catalyst Fund investment community, you’ll gain exclusive access to a wealth of resources designed to propel your startup’s growth and success. Here’s how we empower you:

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Funding: We provide a $50,000 investment to support your teams growth with founder-friendly terms, typically on a SAFE Note. Additionally our team leverages the Illinois Tech community to find additional funding sources for our portfolio companies.

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Talent: Gain access to an exceptional pool of highly skilled, vetted talent from Illinois Tech. Whether you're looking for technical co-founders, engineers, or data scientists, our network provides top-tier candidates equipped with the expertise to accelerate your product development.

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Experts:

Connect with a network of seasoned industry experts who can serve as mentors, advisors, and collaborators. Our mentorship program is designed to provide hands-on guidance to help you navigate the challenges of building a high-growth startup.

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