South Bend Startup Groundata Receives Funding

South Bend-based startup Groundata has received $20,000 from the Elevate Ventures Community Ideation Fund. The startup, which offers a platform to automate processes for philanthropic funders and their portfolio nonprofits, says it will use the funds for product development and to expand its sales and marketing efforts.

Groundata’s platform relies on artificial intelligence and machine learning to offer transparency and consistency in philanthropic data collection, analysis and reporting.

“Many individuals, companies and foundations financially support nonprofits and causes they believe in,” said Nicholas Kuhn, Elevate Ventures’ entrepreneur-in-residence serving Startup South Bend-Elkhart. “A lack of transparency on the impact of those dollars is an issue, and Groundata is in the early stages of addressing this with automated solutions.”

Chief Executive Officer Bethun Bhowmik launched Groundata in 2020. Bhowmik participated in the fall 2021 Student Pre-Accelerator at the IDEA Center in South Bend.

“The funding from Elevate Ventures will allow us to continue working toward our mission of improving transparency in the philanthropic sector,” said Bhowmik. “We are grateful for the support and look forward to continuing to grow our business in Indiana.”

Groundata received a $20,000 pre-seed investment from the Elevate Nexus Regional Pitch Competition last year.