Engage

Engage Ventures is a venture fund, go-to-market program, and corporate innovation platform in partnership with 11 leading corporations, Georgia Tech, Invest Georgia, and Tech Square Ventures. Cox was one of the founding Atlanta corporations and our President and CEO Alex Taylor is on the Board of Directors. Cox actively assists Engage through mentorship, education, and collaboration.

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Accomplishments

Engage has strengthened Atlanta’s innovation ecosystem by connecting leading executives of companies with entrepreneurs who are building disruptive businesses and pioneering new technologies. Cox and Engage corporate partners have entered into over 50 contracts with startups across just the first four cohorts, with more in progress. About 70% of Engage startups are Southeast-based, and 40% are in Atlanta. And Engage startups employ almost 1,000 people — nearly 200 of them in Atlanta. Additionally, the startups have collectively raised more than $285 million in additional financing since joining Engage.

MANAGING DIRECTORS

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Thiago Olson
Managing Director

Thiago Olson is a Managing Director of Engage. Thiago is also a Venture Partner at Tech Square Ventures, focused on early-stage tech investments, and is a board member of Venture Atlanta, the largest venture capital conference in the Southeast. Previously, Thiago served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) at Georgia Tech. Prior to ATDC, he was the CEO and co-founder of Stratos, a mobile payment company – acquired in 2015.

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Daley Ervin
Managing Director

Daley Ervin joined Engage and Tech Square Ventures as Managing Director in 2018. Before joining Engage and Tech Square Ventures, Daley spent 11+ years leading four startups on three continents ($4 billion raised). He previously was vice president of business development and strategy for Amazon-backed Nucleus; GM and head of North American Operations for student housing marketplace Student.com; and was founding team and GM of North America for the mobile app events marketplace YPlan, which later sold to Timeout Group.

Portfolio Overview