Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers announced a partnership to bring digital expertise and innovations into the Green Bay area through TitletownTech, with both Microsoft and the Packers committing $5 million to the partnership over the next five years. The partnership is aimed at boosting economic expansion in Wisconsin’s Fox River Valley, by assisting Wisconsin’s existing and emerging businesses with innovative digital technology.
“The latest digital tools, technology expertise and capital are critical to starting and running a successful business in the 21st century,” stated Microsoft President Brad Smith about the partnership in a recent press release. “By combining the Green Bay Packers’ deep engagement in this community and our expertise in helping businesses digitally transform, we believe TitletownTech will be a valuable resource for Wisconsin and a model for fostering economic development in other parts of the country.”
TitletownTech will focus on three areas initiall: an accelerator for young companies and startups to bring new services and products leveraging digital technology to market, a venture capital fund to assist in launching companies from the Accelerator, and a lab enabling employee teams to work at TitletownTech developing new products and services with digital technology. The employee teams are free to take the solutions they develop at the lab back to their enterprise.
Microsoft is also creating the TitletownTech Mentorship Program to allow Microsoft employees within the Seattle area to volunteer as mentors for TitletownTech. It is estimated that 50% of the jobs in Wisconsin come from startups and young businesses, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is hoped that the digital technology, programs and mentorship coming through TitletownTech will create opportunities for new companies to establish themselves, and for existing companies to enter new markets and build new products.
TitletownTech is part of Microsoft’s TechSpark program, which is developing new digital initiatives in six local U.S. communities to spur economic development in areas residing closely to major metropolitan cities. Microsoft TechSpark Wisconsin is focused on northeastern Wisconsin.
