A4 | TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2017 | THE HERALD-TIMES | LOCAL & STATE

The $1.25 million local tech company Cheddar raised through venture capital funding not only provides a level of validation for the company — it provides an example of what CEO Mike Trotzke sees as a local conver-gence rife with potential.

Cheddar, formerly Cheddar-Getter, is a Bloomington-based tech company that provides bill-ing software to other companies that provide software as a ser-vice. Founded in 2009 by Trotz-

ke and Marc Guyer, Ched-dar announced Monday it has raised $1 .25 million in seed funding from several groups, thanks in part to an effort led by venture capital company M25 Group out of Chicago.

Trotzke said his company’s good fortune is not just a blip on the radar, but a sign of things to come. New, regionally focused venture capital funds are within reach for the handful of maturing startup companies in Blooming-ton.

“This is just sort of the tip of the iceberg in that trend,” Trotzke said.

Sourcing primarily from the Midwest, Cheddar will now be able to market its project nation-ally and add two employees to its four-person workforce thanks to funds from Connectic Ven-tures in Cincinnati; Harbor Street Ventures, Warhawk Ventures and M25 Group in Chicago; Six-Thirty and Cultivation Capital in St. Louis; and Little Engine Ventures and Elevate Ventures from Indiana.

“Five years ago, most of the funds that are investing in Ched-dar didn’t exist,” Trotzke said. “Now, the Midwest really has its own set of seed funds to tap into.”

Before those funds cropped up, Trotzke said, Cheddar would’ve had to go to either coast to ask venture capitalists to fund the company — and the likely answer would’ve been “No.”

“That’s a big turning point for us as an organization, a big valida-tion,” Trotzke said. “Funding is not our goal, success as a business is our goal.”

According to Trotzke, the most common path startups take to secure funding is to start with investments from friends, family and then private “angel” investors. After that, a company may look to solicit seed money, as Cheddar has done.

Trotzke said that by complet-ing a round of funding where

institutions signify their confi-dence in a company by investing in them, it’s more of an assurance that a company will grow to something big. Whereas previ-ous investments may have been made based off a friend or fam-ily member’s confidence in the people behind the company, an institutional round uses metrics to help validate the company as a concept.

“We look forward to, in the next 12-18 months, moving on to the series A step, which is the next rung on the ladder,” Trotzke said.

The benefits of a successful series A funding round may be closer to $3 million to $5 million, according to Trotzke, and often time kicks off rapid growth.

Software fi rm Cheddar raises $1.25M in venture capital Local company taps into new, regionally focused venture capital fundsBy Kurt Christian812-331-4350 | kchristian@heraldt.com

TROTZKE

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb unveiled a program on Monday that will pay train-ing and education costs for employers and workers in high-demand fields.

The Republican said the education entitlement should help train work-ers — from welders and machinists, to nursing assistants and IT techs — for skilled and advanced technology jobs, which require more than a high school diploma.

“Indiana is going to cover the cost of our Hoo-siers getting the certificates they need to move up that

economic ladder,” Hol-comb said during a news conference at the Allison Transmission factory in Indianapolis.

The Next Level Jobs ini-tiative, as it is called, sets aside about $24 million over the next two years.

Roughly $14 million will go toward covering the cost of tuition for certificate programs that take less than two years to complete at Ivy Tech Community College and Vincennes University, according to state officials.

The other $10 million will be used to reimburse employers that provide specialized on-the-job training for new hires. Each employer could collect up to $2,500 per worker.

The program is target-ed to specific industries including advanced man-ufacturing, construction,

health sciences, IT services and transportation.

It’s not clear how many people will be able to take advantage of the program at its current funding level.

Teresa Lubbers, who oversees Indiana’s Com-mission for Higher Edu-cation, said a certificate program can cost anywhere between $300 and $3,000.

If the effort were to run out of money, Lubbers said that would be a “best news scenario” because it would demonstrate the popular-ity of the program and set the stage for Holcomb to request more money from the Legislature.

Still, the program resem-bles the kind of big gov-ernment entitlements that many Republicans have historically excoriated. Holcomb avoided respond-ing to questions in that vein.

Indiana’s governor rolls out $24M job training initiativeNext Level Jobs program focuses on high-demand fi eldsAssociated Press

EAST CHICAGO — Northwestern Indiana resi-dents are concerned that a plan to store PCB-contam-inated dredged sediments in a local disposal facility will create health risks and won’t be an effective long-term solution to cleaning an area waterway.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said air monitoring, storing the sed-iments in wet conditions and a cap at the bottom of the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal in East Chicago will reduce those risks, the (Northwest Indiana) Times reported.

Residents have said the proposed 22-foot-deep dredge should be deeper in order to address the more highly contaminated sedi-ments below the surface.

“By leaving the contami-

Contaminated sediment disposal plan raises concernsAssociated Press nation, we cannot bring this

property to higher and better uses,” said Thomas Frank, a member of the Community Strategy Group. “A compre-hensive cleanup would cre-ate jobs and be a long-term solution.”

Comments that Univer-

sity of Iowa researchers submitted to the EPA show they’re concerned that the dredging will expose higher concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls chemicals.

“Our work has shown that this will result in a

major increase of release of these toxic chemicals to Lake Michigan and to the air of East Chicago,” researchers wrote.

Capping the sediment will prevent it from being disturbed by passing ships, the EPA said.

AUSTEN LEAKE | THE TRIBUNE-STAR

Great Dane Trailers plant manager Cory Lookebill, left, shows Gov. Eric Holcomb the features of some of the Brazil plant’s trailers Monday in western Indiana. Holcomb is going around the state this week to talk about the Next Level Jobs grant program.

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