Business

Funding for Madison Tech Company Opens New Possibilities

MILWAUKEE COURIER — This September, Madison startup company SciArt Software, Inc. was awarded a $530,000 investment from the Idea Fund of La Crosse.

Published

7 years ago

January 6, 2019

Oakland Post

By Ethan Duran

This September, Madison startup company SciArt Software, Inc. was awarded a $530,000 investment from the Idea Fund of La Crosse. The tech company developed Pareto, a plugin system for digital design programs that allows engineers to calculate the strength of materials more efficiently. Now, Pareto is being used by companies like Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation in Brookfield to speed up the design process and make vehicles more fuel efficient.

Karen Caswelch, the CEO of SciArt, was born in Milwaukee with her three brothers before her family moved to St. Louis. After graduating MIT, she worked and travelled for General Motors for 10 years, then spend 10 years afterward with different startup companies. She said that a major trend in technology today is weight and fuel efficiency. Design engineers are scrambling to make transportation lighter, which saves companies money and puts a little less carbon into the atmosphere.

Caswelch has been working with her co-founder Praveen Yadav, a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in SciArt Software since 2016. “The amount of inventions and technology out of Madison is impressive. This is a really solid place for technology,” Caswelch said.

According to the Idea Fund of La Crosse website, the Ideas Fund investment strategy is to work with companies at their earliest stages by supplying venture capital. In a press release, Idea Fund’s Managing Director Jonathon Horne said that the organization is excited about the potential of SciArt’s innovative technology. Caswelch said that SciArt got the funding it did because 85 percent of its customer base renewed Pareto for the next year, despite how small that base started at first.

While Pareto hasn’t been used by any metal companies based in Milwaukee yet, Caswelch says that being in close proximity to Milwaukee makes it easier for SciArt to work with companies there than companies halfway across the world.

“We’re constantly talking to customers,” Caswelch said. “Any metal design company in Milwaukee has potential to use our program. There aren’t a lot of aerospace companies in Milwaukee, but one potential product would be motorcycles.”

Caswelch’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to be able to handle failure, stress and uncertainty. She also said to be willing to listen and learn to people, because people will give you the benefit of the doubt.

“There are so many paths to entrepreneurship,” she said. “Mine was getting solid experience at a large company before moving to startups. A lot of people and business experience helped with that. The path that I took was the right one for me.”

This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Courier.

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 4 – 10, 2026

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Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

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3 weeks ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.