SixThirty Ventures is named as an homage to the height and width of the St. Louis Arch, and the landmark, says Atul Kamra, SixThirty’s Managing Partner, is symbolic to the organization’s mission.

“We are the gateway to connect really innovative ideas from across the world to the buying power of financial services in our region,” Atul says. “And we’ve had a very interesting trajectory.”

Established in 2013, SixThirty has built a strong, countrywide network in financial services, insurance, information technology, and more, connecting top/leading American corporate partners with startups from around the world.

“In the last 5+ years, we’ve really matured in our understanding of the kind of startup we want to invest in specifically, the kind of founder,” Atul says. “I think we’ve also really matured around how to drive more collaboration between an incumbent leading a large company and a startup,” he adds, “especially when the large company recognizes that they need to collaborate to stay relevant and competitive in a world that has been rapidly changed by data, technology, and growing customer expectations.”

While the idea of bringing incumbents and startups together may sound simple, its execution can be anything but—which is why SixThirty has focused on it from the beginning.

Part of that formula is the startups SixThirty attracts. Startups in banking, financial services, wealth management, insurance, information security, and digital health, are among those who SixThirty scouts across the globe.

“The soft stuff is the hard stuff,” Atul says. “We’re generally looking for a founder who brings two sets of very contrasting characteristics: the first set is a conviction to disrupt and improve something important with the instinct to collaborate and help their potential clients/incumbents navigate and absorb that change.”

The second, Atul goes on to describe, is a founder who can bring together data and design, the sensory and analytical. For a founder’s insight or solution to be absorbed and adopted, these traits are key.

This is grounded in something it sees as integral to SixThirty’s DNA: revenue.

“I often say, if you’re hungry for capital, go to San Francisco. If you’re hungry for revenue, come to St. Louis,” Atul says. “When you think about St. Louis or the Midwest, we’re straightforward and plain-speaking. This is the Show Me State, after all.”

The sensibility around helping startups refine how they go to market and helping them to scale their business effectively, to build their revenues faster, is the heart of SixThirty’s business—and a point of differentiation between SixThirty and other firms that is evident to startups and to incumbents alike.

“For incumbents, we offer a panoramic view of what’s going on across the globe, and we can connect business leaders with some of the most promising ideas and provide them a structure and safety in which to engage with the startup community,” Atul says. It’s the connectivity and collaboration between both startups and incumbents that sets SixThirty apart.

Conversely, startups in the B2B space are in need of what SixThirty’s corporate partners can offer: access to decision-makers and subject matter experts who bring the knowledge of how to scale businesses, and also have the potential to work more deeply with them through vendor relationships, co-investment or partnership.

“You can talk all you want about collaboration, but collaboration starts with being available,” Atul says. “We see it as something special about the Midwest, this openness and confidence to gain access, and to be able to replicate that with our partners across the country.”

To date, SixThirty has invested in 70+ startups across 5 continents, with over 30% of the founders being women or minorities.

“We are a magnet to attract the most innovative ideas from all over the world,” Atul says. “Our innovation exists in the platform we have created to engineer strong and effective collaboration between startups and incumbents.”