Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers are collaborating on a partnership to create jobs and boost the local economy through a major investment in technology. The corporate giant and the four-time Super Bowl champions have each pledged $5 million over the next five years as seed money to launch Titletown Tech, a three-pronged effort of a tech accelerator aimed at startup companies, a venture capital fund to fund accelerator participants and a digital lab to consult with more established business.
Titletown, whose phase one opened to the public this fall, was a mixed-use district two years in the making adjacent to storied Lambeau Field. The project received $65 million from the Packers at the time — approximately half the initial investment — with three flagship clients in the Lodge Kohler hotel, a Bellin Health healthcare facility and a Hinterland restaurant and brewpub.
The new Microsoft project will be a corporate anchor to the area, with the Redmond, Wash.-based company and the Packers both offering to donate the V.C. fund’s profits and capital returns back into the community through charitable giving and economic stimulus. Microsoft is also creating a TitletownTech mentorship program in which its employees will work with young engineers and entrepreneurs.
“Titletown has gained a tremendously impactful partner in Microsoft,” said Mark Murphy, President and CEO of the Packers. “Economic development is the key to our region’s future, and Microsoft, with its array of tools and expertise, will help grow new businesses as well as assist our existing companies to use technology to realize greater success.”
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An estimate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison credited digital technologies for about 50 percent of in-state job creation. A new building will be constructed to house Titletown Tech and is slated to open next fall.
“The latest digital tools, technology expertise, and capital are critical to starting and running a successful business in the 21st century,” said Brad Smith, President of Microsoft. “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.”
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“We intended to develop Titletown District as a magnet to draw world-class people,” Ed Policy, Packers vice president and general counsel, told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “The Microsoft involvement clearly takes this to another level.”