Portal Fund: RISE (Reinvesting in the Systemically Excluded) is an early-stage pre-seed investment tool that was developed to assist ventures in the Mobile region that exhibited potential for high growth. While Innovation Portal and supporting community programs have been successful in preparing entrepreneurial businesses for funding, a very significant gap in seed funding resources exists, particularly within the SEDI community. Even with the development of the Portal Fund, the greater Mobile region suffers from a lack of early-stage funding, and we have found that funding conducted outside of a cohort-based program leaves founders at risk from the two other necessary aspects of growth: capacity and network. As such, Innovation Portal will host a program to create, launch, and administer a cohort-based program that is a tag onto the current Portal Fund. The RISE cohort of the Portal Fund will focus on investing in five SEDI-owned companies alongside a 10-week acceleration program. Through this program, Innovation Portal will provide programming to the cohort, network development, a collaborative workspace, and a $5,000 grant to each company completing the program.