Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Grow Utah Takes Over CrowdPitch, SpeedPitch Events

Salt Lake City-based Grow Utah Ventures is taking over the CrowdPitch and SpeedPitch events, which have been run by Lendio (formerly FundingUniverse) and founder Brock Blake, the two said today. According to Grow Utah, it will run the two events, which help entrepreneurs pitch their events to angel investors. The two have been working together on events in Utah for nearly six years. Lendio CEO Blake explained that "the time came for us to hand off ownership and management of these events to someone else." Lendio has recently steered away from its former focus of connecting entrepreneurs and angel investors, and is now offering up a service to help small businesses find business loans. Financial details of the transition were not announced. The CrowdPitch events had been a hallmark of Funding Universe's early efforts. The events had been held across the country; it's unclear how the transition will affect those national efforts. Grow Utah is exclusively focused on promoting entrepreneurship in Utah.