# Bryan Ritchie

> Bryan Ritchie is a seed investor at Kickstart (South Bend) backing FinTech and Software. See 3 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Kickstart](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kickstart-seed-fund)
- Location: South Bend, United States
- Total investments: 3
- Last investment: Sep 2021
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-ritchie-7161b72/

Bryan Ritchie is a seed investor at Kickstart in South Bend focused on FinTech and Software. Bryan Ritchie is Director of the Technology Commercialization Office at the University of Utah. Ritchie grew up in Salt Lake City. He started two companies and worked or consulted for many other businesses in Utah and around the world, including Novell, Dayna Communications, Century Software, Iomega and Megahertz. He holds a Ph.D. in politicaleconomy from Emory University, a Master of Business Administration from the Marriott School at Brigham Young University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has been a professor of political economy at Michigan State University since 2001.Ritchie’s academic research focuses on how companies and industries upgrade technologically. He focuses on how innovation, entrepreneurship, technological development, education, training and social capital can help deepen the commercial value of innovative discoveries. His initial focus was in the high-growth countries of Southeast Asia and has moved to the recovering economies of developed countries. He co-authored “Relationship Economics,” and is published in several other books and journals, such as International Organization, World Development, Asia Pacific Journal of Management and Journal of East Asian Studies. In addition, Ritchie is fluent in Thai and Laotian and proficient in Mandarin and Malay.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| FinTech | 1 | 33% |
| Software | 1 | 33% |
| Blockchain | 1 | 33% |
| Cryptocurrency | 1 | 33% |
| Information Technology | 1 | 33% |

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 1 | 33% |
| Pre-Seed | 1 | 33% |
| Series A | 1 | 33% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SIMBA Chain | Simba Chain is a cloud-based, smart-contract-as-a-service (SCaaS) platform that enables users to implement decentralized applications dappS for blockchain. These apps allow secure, direct connections between users and providers, eliminating third parties. The easy-to-use platform is tailored for users, developers, government, and enterprises toquickly deploy blockchain dapps for their enterprise.Simba Chain uses the Microsoft Azure Government cloud platform for rapid transaction finality. The company offers a platform that gives access to smart contract methods that transact on the blockchain ledger and enables access control groups for reading and writing.The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Plymouth, Indiana. | $25M | Series A | Sep 01, 2021 |  |
| SIMBA Chain | Simba Chain is a cloud-based, smart-contract-as-a-service (SCaaS) platform that enables users to implement decentralized applications dappS for blockchain. These apps allow secure, direct connections between users and providers, eliminating third parties. The easy-to-use platform is tailored for users, developers, government, and enterprises toquickly deploy blockchain dapps for their enterprise.Simba Chain uses the Microsoft Azure Government cloud platform for rapid transaction finality. The company offers a platform that gives access to smart contract methods that transact on the blockchain ledger and enables access control groups for reading and writing.The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Plymouth, Indiana. | $1.5M | Seed | Jan 13, 2020 |  |
| SIMBA Chain | Simba Chain is a cloud-based, smart-contract-as-a-service (SCaaS) platform that enables users to implement decentralized applications dappS for blockchain. These apps allow secure, direct connections between users and providers, eliminating third parties. The easy-to-use platform is tailored for users, developers, government, and enterprises toquickly deploy blockchain dapps for their enterprise.Simba Chain uses the Microsoft Azure Government cloud platform for rapid transaction finality. The company offers a platform that gives access to smart contract methods that transact on the blockchain ledger and enables access control groups for reading and writing.The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Plymouth, Indiana. | $500K | Pre-Seed | Feb 19, 2019 |  |

3 of 3 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Elevate Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/elevate-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [J. Hunt Holdings](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jhh-vc) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [J. Hunt Holdings](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/j-hunt-holdings) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Stanford Law School](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/stanford-law-school) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Valley Capital Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/valley-capital-partners) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Kickstart

VC Fund · Salt Lake City, United States

We invest in great early-stage companies based in the Mountain West. Some of those greats we've supported over last the 17 years include Lucid, Podium, Angel Studios, Galileo, Spiff, Nomi Health, Havenly, Pura, Rad AI, and Alianza. Find out more here: https://www.kickstartfund.com/

5 contacts available at Kickstart.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Bryan Ritchie | Investment Committee | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bryan-ritchie |
| Scott Frazier | Investment Committee | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/scott-frazier-3 |
| Alex Soffe | CFO & General Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alex-soffe-39bf |
| Brianna Bowles | Office Manager | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/brianna-bowles |
| Dalton Wright | General Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dalton-justin-wright |

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## FAQ

### What does Bryan Ritchie invest in?

Bryan Ritchie invests primarily in FinTech, Software and Blockchain startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 3 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Bryan Ritchie last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Bryan Ritchie closed in Sep 2021. Shizune tracks 3 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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