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Indianapolis-based High Alpha Innovation, a spinoff of Indianapolis-based venture studio High Alpha, has rebranded and is now doing business as Alloy Partners, the company announced this week.
The rebranding comes as Alloy is preparing to announce a new round of investment from its first-ever outside investors, said CEO Elliott Parker.
Formed in 2020, Alloy Partners works with organizations such as universities and large corporations to help them create and launch startups. It is a separate entity from High Alpha, a venture studio that creates, launches and funds business-to-business software-as-a-service, or SaaS, startups.
To date, Alloy Partners has helped launch more than 30 companies. Some of those companies have emerged from the six venture studios that Alloy Partners has helped create.
Parker said a big reason for the name change was to distinguish his organization from High Alpha, which was launched by ExactTarget co-founder Scott Dorsey along with former Salesforce executives Eric Tobias and Mike Fitzgerald and entrepreneur Kristian Andersen. (Salesforce acquired ExactTarget for $2.5 billion in 2013.)
“It’s [the High Alpha name] a strong brand, strong track record, and over the last five years has opened a lot of doors for us. But as we’ve grown into our own track record and presence in the market, it has caused some confusion,” Parker said. As we brought on additional investors, we felt like it was important to have a name that was unique to us.”
To date, Parker said, High Alpha has been Alloy’s only investor. But Alloy recently closed on an investment round from its first non-High-Alpha investors. Parker said final details of that deal are still being wrapped up and will be announced in the near future.
Also looking ahead, Parker said Alloy is working to launch another venture studio in Indiana this year. He declined to give details about who Alloy is working with on that effort.
Alloy has already helped launch two Indiana-based venture studios: It helped create the University of Notre Dame’s 1842 Studio, which focuses on software startups that target societal challenges, and it has worked with Purdue University to create DIAL Ventures, which launches ag-focused software startups. (DIAL is a nod to the studio’s original name, which was Digital Innovation and Agri-food Systems Lab.)
Alloy Partners will continue to operate from the same Massachusetts Avenue office space that it shares with High Alpha, Parker said.
The Alloy name is a familiar one to the entity previously known as High Alpha Innovation. One of the organization’s annual events is an entrepreneurship and innovation conference called the Alloy Venture-Building Summit.
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