Launch Fishers working with California-based Plug and Play to help local startups

Launch Fishers

Launch Fishers has formed a partnership with California-based venture capital group Plug and Play that will give local startups access to Plug and Play’s wide network of business resources.

“This is about, how can we push these startups to the next level?” said Launch Fishers Executive Director David Bolling. The co-working and entrepreneurship center has about 500 individual members representing 175 different companies in a variety of industries, including software-as-a-service, life sciences, medical technology, hard tech and others.

The Launch Fishers partnership is separate from the Indianapolis-based life sciences startup accelerator announced in April, which is a collaboration between Plug and Play, the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership and the Indiana University Launch Accelerator for Biosciences, or IU LAB.

But both the Fishers and the Indianapolis initiatives are part of Plug and Play’s larger strategy of building out its presence in Indiana. The firm entered the state early last year, when it opened an office in Warsaw. Through that office, Plug and Play runs a medical technology business accelerator that is currently working with its third cohort of startups.

Plug and Play’s Indiana director, Brandon Noll, said Plug and Play is also working to open a Fort Wayne office that would focus on advanced manufacturing. Noll said he expects that office to open in the upcoming “weeks to months.”

“We’re trying to be a part of the ecosystem—and not just the Warsaw ecosystem, but the state of Indiana,” said Noll, who himself lives in Fort Wayne.

Plug and Play is a venture investment firm and an accelerator operator that operates 63 programs in 27 countries. Last year, 2,500 startups went through a Plug and Play accelerator. The firm also invested in more than 230 companies last year and expects to invest in about 250 companies this year. (Not all accelerator participants will receive investments from Plug and Play, and the firm also invests in many companies that have not participated in one of its accelerators.)

The Plug and Play/Launch Fishers partnership is a two-year agreement. Bolling said Launch Fishers is paying Plug and Play as part of the agreement, but he declined to say how much.

Under the arrangement, a Plug and Play staffer—an employee who relocated here from Boston—is now working from Launch Fishers and will be available to consult with Launch Fishers members.

That Fishers-based Plug and Play employee has expertise in medical technology, but Noll said Plug and Play has wider expertise in 25 industry sectors and will be “industry-agnostic” in terms of the startups it works with in Fishers.

Launch Fishers also plans to host twice-monthly programs in conjunction with Plug and Play—a combination of online courses and in-person events that cover a range of business topics relevant to startups.

Bolling said the partnership will give local startups access to Plug and Play’s network of resources and connections—a network that stretches far beyond central Indiana.

“It’s no secret that these startups need money, but they [also] need connectivity to potential customers,” Bolling said. “When you have these guys [at Plug and Play] who can pick up the phone and have these connections, this is really just immeasurable for us.”

The Launch Fishers partnership also has benefits for Plug and Play, Noll said. “It is awesome that we’re going to get access to a lot of early-stage startups that we can vet for potential investment, but also participation in our accelerators around the world.”

The partnership’s roots trace back several years, when Noll was working for the  Fort Wayne-based Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership. He was part of a group of business leaders who visited Carmel and Fishers in August 2020 to learn from leaders in those cities, and a visit to Launch Fishers was part of that trip.

So when Noll joined Plug and Play in January 2024 and was thinking of things the organization might do around Indiana, Launch Fishers came to mind. “They have a lot of initiatives there that perfectly align with what Plug and Play is trying to do.”

The partnership officially began in March, but it has its public debut on May 9, when Launch Fishers will host a free event and lunch for those interested in learning more. Details and online registration for that event can be found here.