Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik is pumping $12 million into DreamIt, a Philadelphia-based early-stage venture fund and accelerator.
Vinik, who will become a partner and join the DreamIt board of directors, said both he and the company “hope to put more startups into orbit.”
“Innovation is, more than ever, an important part of the economy,” Vinik told the Tampa Bay Business Journal on Monday. “I think for any city to grow and thrive in the 21st century they have to become a leader in innovation. It’s something Jim O’Connell [Vinik’s chief of staff and CEO of the Vinik Family Foundation] and I have been working on two years now. We’ve had hundreds of calls and meetings with various stakeholders both in Tampa Bay and around the country. That’s led to this agreement with DreamIt and to starting an innovation hub later this year and into 2019.”
