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Engage Ventures
Engage Ventures operates as a corporate venture and innovation platform, founded and managed by Tech Square Ventures' Blake Patton.
Engage Ventures
Engage Ventures operates as a corporate venture and innovation platform, founded and managed by Tech Square Ventures' Blake Patton. The firm is not a traditional venture capital fund in structure — it functions as a collaborative network where dedicated corporate partners underwrite shared access to an enterprise startup accelerator. Partners like Chick-fil-A, Goldman Sachs, UPS, Georgia-Pacific, and 11 other category-leading organizations pool resources to vet and engage with business-to-business startups, converting what would otherwise be fragmented corporate innovation efforts into a unified sourcing and piloting channel. The platform targets early-stage enterprise technology companies spanning six thematic areas: Customer Experience, Supply Chain & Manufacturing, Future of Work, Big Data, Analytics & Security, Logistics & Mobility, and Climate Tech & Sustainability. Its 10-week go-to-market program is designed to refine a startup's enterprise sales playbook and forge direct relationships with senior executives at partner corporations. Portfolio companies have included antimicrobial LED manufacturer Vyv, which secured aircraft-certification and a Series A investment from Delta Air Lines through the program, and Deep North, a computer-vision analytics firm that ran a pilot with The Home Depot before attracting a $25 million Series A co-investment from both The Home Depot and Delta. Geography skews heavily Southeast — the firm reports that 70% of its startups are Southeast-headquartered, with 40% based in Atlanta. The platform has tracked 106 portfolio company engagements and over $3.1 billion in aggregate follow-on capital raised by its startups. Engage's fund is managed by Tech Square Ventures, and its board draws directly from the executive ranks of its partners: Delta CEO Ed Bastian and Inspire Brands Co-Founder and CEO Paul Brown sit on the board. Recent cohorts and cross-corporate events continue to operate on a spring and fall cycle, embedding Engage within the rhythm of Atlanta's innovation ecosystem and reinforcing its role as the connective tissue between large enterprises and venture-stage startups in the region. What structurally differentiates Engage Ventures from a standard corporate venture arm is its multi-partner, non-exclusive go-to-market design. Rather than one corporation underwriting a captive venture unit, 16 enterprises share the diligence burden, the pilot pipeline, and the commercial relationships. For a startup, acceptance into the program is effectively a warm introduction to multiple potential Fortune 500 customers at once — a sourcing and distribution model that reduces the typical enterprise sales cycle friction.
General information
Firm type
Venture Capital
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Atlanta
Corporate office
Atlanta, GA, United States
Principals
Blake Patton
Managing Partner, Engage & Tech Square Ventures
Bill Nussey
Partner, Engage & Tech Square Ventures
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Engage Ventures?
Blake Patton is the Managing Partner of both Engage and its fund manager, Tech Square Ventures. He is supported by Partner Bill Nussey, Director of Corporate Insights Hari Gopal, and Corporate Insights Lead Akshita Iyer. The Engage program's collaborative sourcing process draws on a cross-corporate board of Fortune 500 executives including Delta CEO Ed Bastian and Inspire Brands CEO Paul Brown, but investment decisions for the Engage fund are executed by the Tech Square Ventures team.
How does Engage source its deal flow?
Engage uses a proprietary cross-corporate insights engine developed in conjunction with Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute. The team develops data-driven market theses to identify enterprise startups, then recruits them into cohorts. The sourcing network includes referrals from the partner corporations themselves — 16 major firms spanning logistics, retail, financial services, healthcare, and energy — plus the broader venture community and Georgia Tech's technology commercialization pipeline.
Is Engage a venture capital fund or an accelerator?
It operates as both, but the accelerator is the organizing structure. Engage runs a 10-week go-to-market program for cohorts of 6–8 companies twice a year, focused on enterprise sales readiness. The attached Engage fund, managed by Tech Square Ventures, is a strategic investor that deploys capital into companies selected for the program. The dual structure means startups receive both commercial access and investment capital.
Does Engage participate in follow-on rounds?
Yes. The firm's model is built to create the conditions for follow-on investment, often alongside its corporate partners. Delta Air Lines directly invested in Vyv's Series A after the startup completed the Engage program, and both The Home Depot and Delta participated in Deep North's $25 million Series A. Engage facilitates these commercial-to-investment pipelines but does not publicly commit to pro-rata follow-on rights as a structural rule.
Which sectors does Engage explicitly target?
Engage identifies six strategic themes on its website: Customer Experience, Supply Chain & Manufacturing, Future of Work, Big Data, Analytics & Security, Logistics & Mobility, and Climate Tech & Sustainability. The firm focuses exclusively on B2B enterprise technology companies. It does not target consumer, biotech, or deeptech outside these enterprise framework domains.
How is Engage Ventures related to Tech Square Ventures?
Engage was launched by Tech Square Ventures as its corporate innovation and accelerator platform. The Engage fund is managed by Tech Square Ventures, and Blake Patton serves as Managing Partner of both entities. The team overlaps substantially — Partner Bill Nussey supports early-stage investments at Tech Square Ventures while overseeing the growth of the Engage program and fund. Engage operates under the same umbrella but with a distinct mandate focused on corporate-startup collaboration.
What is Engage's geographic footprint?
Engage is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and its startup portfolio skews heavily toward the Southeast United States — 70% of its portfolio companies are Southeast-headquartered, with 40% based in Atlanta specifically. The corporate partner network is overwhelmingly concentrated in Atlanta as well, anchored by firms like The Coca-Cola Company, The Home Depot, Delta Air Lines, and UPS. There is no indication of additional offices outside the city.
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