Blockchain news keeps coming from Cleveland. Cleveland.com reports that JumpStart CEO Ray Leach has announced Sunday night that the company will join six other funds in investing $100 million in early-stage blockchain startups.
He made the announcement during the official opening events for the sold-out Blockland Solutions conference. Additionally, local venture fund and business accelerator FlashStarts will make a $6 million pre-seed fund available to blockchain startups.
Official word is pending, but Leach also declared that blockchain companies who capitalize on Ohio’s “Opportunity Zones,” the economically depressed areas that offer tax incentives to drive development, will have another $200 million at their disposal over the next three years.
Lt. Governor-elect Jon Husted also took the stage that evening Sunday night to promote InnovateOhio, an initiative that is making an aggressive bid to make Ohio’s government a hotbed of tech-savvy, from digitizing government processes to funding skill development for Ohio workers.
“If you would like government to be more involved in our lives, it’s a good thing for you because if government works better they have more confidence in it. If you’re one of those people that thinks you want government less in your life, that’s good too. It will be disruptive in a way, in a constructive way, that will help create efficiencies, save money.”
Dayton City Journal reported this initiative this past fall. “Other goals of the program include modernizing technology in Ohio's classrooms; making the state a leader in computer science and coding; designing a match-making application that connects people seeking work to businesses who are hiring; and expanding broadband infrastructure across Ohio to make it a frontrunner in mobile-edge technologies,” the outlet stated.
“If you would like government to be more involved in our lives, it’s a good thing for you because if government works better they have more confidence in it. If you’re one of those people that thinks you want government less in your life, that’s good too. It will be disruptive in a way, in a constructive way, that will help create efficiencies, save money,” Husted said at the Blockland Solutions conference.
“We want to be the state in the Midwest that everybody turns to.”