Sandbox Industries is a

venture capital firm Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

located in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. The firm focuses on connecting established corporations with disruptive startups via strategic corporate investment funds.

History

Sandbox was founded in Chicago in 2003 by Bob Shapiro and Nick Rosa. At its outset, Sandbox ran a startup Foundry that employed entrepreneurs and tasked them with researching and testing the viability of a startup concept. These companies were provided with seed funding, mentorship, and office space in exchange for equity. Portfolio companies include Lab42, FeeFighters and Marbles: The Brain Store. The firm has since ceased the internal founding of its own startups to focus on connecting corporate partners with entrepreneurs outside its own walls. Sandbox Industries also founded two new business accelerators, Healthbox and Excelerate. Healthbox, founded in 2011 and a strategic partner of BCBSVP, began as a three-month startup accelerator program that provides seed capital, mentorship, office space, and advisors to healthcare-related companies. Healthbox also launched Healthbox Solutions, which expedited market entry for early-stage healthcare companies; the Healthbox Foundry, an evaluation and commercialization process designed to help organizations advance internal innovation; and Healthbox Collaborative Innovation Funds, which Healthbox developed alongside healthcare organizations to meet their individual needs. In November 2014, Healthbox announced a partnership with

Intermountain Healthcare Intermountain Health (formerly Intermountain Healthcare) is a United States Non-profit organization, not-for-profit Health care, healthcare system with 385 clinics and 33 hospitals in the Intermountain West (primarily Colorado, Idaho, Montana, N ...

to work with its Intermountain Foundry, where hospital employees with entrepreneurial ideas can work to make them a reality. Excelerate, founded in 2010 and based in Chicago, was a three-month startup accelerator program for tech-enabled startups. It has since become a part of the TechStars accelerator network as TechStars Chicago. Excelerate was named one of Tech Cocktail's Top 15 USA Startup Accelerators in 2012.

Funds

Sandbox Industries manages four Funds: Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Partners I, L.P., Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Partners II, L.P., Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Partners III, L.P., and Cultivian Sandbox Food and Agriculture Fund II.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Partners Funds I, II, and III

Sandbox has an exclusive partnership with BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners to manage and invest BCBSVP Funds I, II, and III. This group sources healthcare-related startups which, if invested in or partnered with, could further BlueCross and BlueShield's own goals or provide it with insight into industry trends, and makes recommendations to the venture partners. Sandbox Industries is the Fund manager for BCBSVP Funds I, II and III, which invest in healthcare-related startups of strategic relevance to BlueCross BlueShield. BCBSVP has made investments in Bloom Health, Nexidia, and Patientco, among others.

Cultivian Sandbox Food and Agriculture Fund II

Cultivian Sandbox is a partnership between Cultivian Ventures and Sandbox Industries which invests in food and agriculture technology companies. Fund II has made investments in Conservis, Vestaron, and EnEvolv, among others.

References

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Inc., April 2012 Who Will Social Media Users Vote For? (INFOGRAPHIC)

Mashable Mashable is a Online newspaper, news website, digital media platform and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005. History Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2004. Early iterations o ...

, October 2012 Chicago's FeeFighters raises $1.6 mil
Crain's Chicago Business. 2011-01-13. Retrieved 2019-10-07 Lost Your Marbles? Consider Them Found!

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, January 2012 BlueCross BlueShield, BMW, Best Buy, And De Beers Venture Into New Investments

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is an American business magazine published monthly in print and online, focusing on technology, business, and design. It releases six print issues annually. History ''Fast Company'' was founded in November 1995 by Alan Webb ...

, February 2012 Startup Fever Grips Chicago Companies, From Blues To Law Firms

Crain's Chicago Business ''Crain's Chicago Business'' is a weekly business newspaper in Chicago, IL. It is owned by Detroit-based Crain Communications. History The first issue of ''Crain's Chicago Business'' is dated April 17, 1978. In 1977, when Crain Communicati ...

, October 2012 Startup Bloom Health raised $5M
Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal, January 2010 Nexidia Secures over $23 Million in New Equity Funding

BusinessWire Business Wire is an American company that disseminates full-text press releases from thousands of companies and organizations worldwide to news media, financial markets, Financial statement, disclosure systems, investors, information web sites, d ...

, October 2010 Healthcare Expense Management Leader Patientco Receives $3.75M in funding led by BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners and Sandbox Industries

PR Newswire PR Newswire is a distributor of press releases headquartered in Chicago. The service was created in 1954 to allow companies to electronically send press releases to news organizations, using teleprinters at first. The founder, Herbert Muschel, ...

, August 2012 Why Cultivian Ventures, Sandbox Industries invest in food production

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

, September 2014 Conservis Corporation Announces Initial Close on $10 Million Series A Financing
Businesswire, September 2014
Yahoo! Finance, August 2014
PR Newswire, March 2014 Thinking Outside the Box About Healthcare
{{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130621205253/http://www.worldbusinesschicago.com/news/thinking-outside-the-box-about-healthcare , date=2013-06-21 , World Business Chicago, November 2011 Healthbox Raises $7M from Intermountain, HCSC, its first since founding
MobiHealthNews, April 2014 Healthbox to help entrepreneurs inside and outside Intermountain get to “yes”
MedCity News, November 2014 150 Resources for Tech Startups
DailyTekk, April 2012 Excelerate Labs To Become TechStars Chicago
Technori, September 2012 Top 15 US Startup Accelerators Ranked; Y Combinator and TechStars on Top
Tech Cocktail, August 2012 BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners Fund History
CB Insights, May 2017

External links

sandboxindustries.com

cultiviansbx.com

healthbox.com
Financial services companies established in 2003 Venture capital firms of the United States