City and County of Denver

This EDA investment will support TechUp, a new program offered through an entrepreneurial hub catering to technology entrepreneurs in the Denver metro area from underrepresented communities, specifically Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). TechUp will support a multi-tiered program focused on tech entrepreneurship, mentorship, ideation assistance, business incubation services, and sales pipeline generation opportunities.

The Denver Office of Economic Development (DEDO) will deliver these services in partnership with Access Mode—a local BIPOC-led tech accelerator—University of Colorado Denver, Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network (BEN), and Colorado Thought Leaders Forum. Building off the success of The Commons at Champa, the city’s highly effective entrepreneurial hub operated since 2015 in downtown Denver, DEDO is committed to serving underrepresented entrepreneurs via The Commons at Park Hill, its new, second entrepreneurial hub, opening later this year in a historically BIPOC neighborhood. DEDO will leverage this physical space and the capital support of the new Minority Owned Business Ecosystem and Investment (MOBEI) Fund—a $50 million venture fund established by the city to directly support successful local entrepreneurs. EDA funds will support delivery of TechUp’s programming, including pre-accelerator, mid-level and post-accelerator programming, at the new hub and at the CU Denver campus. This project will build on Denver’s assets as the center of a growing tech innovation region while also working to make entrepreneurial support for underserved and nontraditional minority tech entrepreneurs more equitable.