Changing Lanes will receive $100,000 in funding to accelerate its entrepreneurial ventures

Changing Lanes CDL Driving school was today announced as the winner of the 2022 Austin FC Dream Starter Competition Presented by Q2 Holdings Inc., in collaboration with DivInc. Changing Lanes will receive $100,000 in funding to accelerate its entrepreneurial ventures as part of the Austin FC Dream Starter business initiative, which aims to fund Austin entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups.

“We’re honored to announce Changing Lanes CDL Driving School as this year’s Dream Starter winner,” said Austin FC President Andy Loughnane. “This competition showcased Austin’s amazing entrepreneurial community once again, and we’d like to thank Q2 and DivInc for their help in making it possible.”

Founded by Delbert Crawford in Austin, Texas, Changing Lanes CDL Driving School teaches individuals from diverse backgrounds how to safely drive a commercial vehicle. The school's training programs helps its students, many of whom are unemployed, gain the skills necessary for jobs driving commercial vehicles, changing the trajectory of their lives.

The $100,000 in Dream Starter funds will allow Changing Lanes to purchase an additional truck needed for commercial vehicle driver’s training, and empower them to offer more scholarships and extend additional training opportunities to more students.

“I am honored to be recipient of this award,” said Crawford. “This represents all the hard work, people believing in me, investing in me, and encouraging me when I doubted and second guessed myself and my dream. Hard work does pay off.”

The other 2022 Dream Starter finalists included were Swella, a standardized system within salons that utilizes robotics to automate the process of hair braiding; Mach1 Services, a fully automated and digitized dispatch platform for emergency roadside assistance; Paradigm Robotics, LLC, introducing the FireBot, the world’s first, high-temperature thermally-insulated, wirelessly controlled, obstacle-climbing, unmanned robot that can be deployed into burning buildings; and Independent Identity, an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) day program for adults with autism/IDD who exhibit challenging behavior.

Changing Lanes, along with the other finalists, participated in a pitch contest on June 8 at Q2 Stadium, where a diverse group of representatives from Austin FC, Q2 Holdings Inc., and other executives from the Austin entrepreneurial community evaluated each finalist’s presentation. As the winner, Changing Lanes will be honored with a check presentation during halftime at the Austin FC vs. FC Dallas match on Saturday, June 25.

"On behalf of the Q2 team, I’m excited to congratulate Mr. Crawford and Changing Lanes on winning this year’s Dream Starter competition,” said Q2 CEO Matt Flake. “Their story is a perfect example of why we started this initiative: they’re founded right here in Austin and are doing work that has a direct impact on our community. We’re tremendously proud to partner with Austin FC in bringing the Dream Starter competition to life and look forward to continuing to work together to improve our Austin entrepreneurial scene.”

Click here to learn more about Changing Lanes CDL Driving School.

About Austin FC

Austin FC joined Major League Soccer (MLS) as the League’s 27^th club in January 2019. Austin FC officially began competing in MLS in April 2021 and played its first match at home on June 19, 2021, in the new, 100% privately financed, $260 million, state-of-the-art Q2 Stadium in Austin.

Austin FC operates the Austin FC Academy, the fully funded developmental academy representing the highest level of competition for elite youth soccer players in Central Texas, while serving as the exclusive developmental pathway to MLS for the region’s most talented young players.

About Q2 Holdings, Inc.

Q2 is a financial experience company dedicated to providing digital banking and lending solutions to banks, credit unions, alternative finance, and fintech companies in the U.S. and internationally. With comprehensive end-to-end solution sets, Q2 enables its partners to provide cohesive, secure, data-driven experiences to every account holder–from consumer to small business and corporate. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 has offices worldwide and is publicly traded on the NYSE under the stock symbol QTWO. To learn more, please visit Q2.com.

About DivInc

DivInc is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to generate social and economic equity through entrepreneurship by equipping underrepresented founders with access to the critical resources they need to build investable companies. To drive systematic change, DivInc offers multiple programming opportunities including a 12-week accelerator for early-stage startups. Since its founding in 2016, DivInc has supported 73 companies resulting in $14mill in investment fundraising, 400+ jobs created, and over $4mill in revenue generated by our alumni. DivInc is headquartered in Austin, TX, with a second location in Houston, TX. Learn more at https://www.divinc.org.

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