Venture capital firm goes to Midwest for next big thing in tech
Chris Olsen believes the next great tech firm could emerge right here from the heartland. Sure, Silicon Valley is home to most huge tech household names (Apple, Facebook, Twitter, eBay and so many more), with New York (Tumblr) and Boston (Trip Advisor) creeping up, but as he sees it, why not Ohio or Michigan? Hundreds […]
New Venture Fund In Portland To Focus On Social Impact
Carolynn Duncan is not your typical venture capitalist. No Harvard MBA. No Stanford pedigree. This music-major from Brigham Young University is marching to the beat of her own drum and making a difference while she’s at it. Duncan is launching a $20 million venture fund, Northwest Social Venture Fund, to invest in technology startups with […]
Top Moscow Science Institute Launches Seed Fund
The Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), one of the country’s leading graduate science universities, has launched its own $30 million seed fund. The fund, called Phystech Ventures, is focussed on incubating and growing MIPT-related tech companies in the fintech, edutech, digital health, 3D-printing, efficient energy use and oil & gas technology sectors.
UCLA launches crowdfunding platform to support research
UCLA has launched UCLA Spark, an online crowdfunding platform aimed at providing critical fundraising support for innovative projects by UCLA faculty and official student organizations.
Wisconsin Launches New $2M Economic Development Seed Fund, IdeaAdvance
The University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. (WEDC) have created a $2 million seed fund that UW-Extension will administer to help commercialize technology and ideas developed at UW campuses statewide. UW-Extension and its partners announced the Ideadvance Seed Fund today at a news conference in the State Capitol attended by Lt. […]
Arizona State University Gets $1M To Start Venture Fund
The Maricopa County Industrial Development Authority (MCIDA) has awarded a $1 million grant to the ASU Foundation for A New American University to create a venture capital fund. The fund will be invested in companies that benefit from ASU-supported accelerator programs, helping them take the next step in their development with early-stage manufacturing startup support.
University of the West of England to put up to £150,000 in start-ups
The Innovation 4 Growth programme offers grants of between £25,000 and £150,000 for smaller businesses looking to develop new or improved products, processes, services or technologies that safeguard or create jobs.
University of Michigan Zell Lurie Student-led Fund invests $90K in two start-ups
The University of Michigan’s Zell Lurie Institute at the Ross School of Business today announced that its student managed Zell Lurie Commercialization Fund has made two investments. The fund provided pre-seed investments to healthcare startup AlertWatch and ad tech start up AdAdapted. The collective investments total $90,000 and closed in November 2013 and January 2014, respectively. The deals mark the latest […]
Isis Innovation, University of Oxford seed funded company, NaturalMotion, sold for $527m
Isis Innovation worked with Zoology researcher Torsten Reil to protect his intellectual property, develop a business plan, and introduce first-round investors. The company was spun out in 2001. US social games company Zynga has now finalised the acquisition of Natural Motion for more than $527m, one of the largest transactions ever involving an Oxford spin-out. […]
Two UCD Research Receive €150,000 each From ERC POC Awards
UCD researchers are the most successful Irish based researchers in the latest round of European Research Council (ERC) ‘top-up’ funding or ‘Proof of Concept’ awards. Two of the three Irish based researchers who were awarded one of the thirty-four grants announced by the ERC [today] are based at University College Dublin: Professor Frederic Dias, UCD School of Mathematical Sciences; […]