Osage Venture Partners closes third fund at $66M
Osage Venture Partners is pleased to announce the final closing of Osage Venture Partners III, exceeding its target fund size by 10 percent to reach $66 million. Osage Venture Partners III continues the strategy executed in Osage Venture Partners II, investing exclusively in early-stage enterprise software companies in the Mid-Atlantic region. Osage Venture Partners III […]
University of Edinburgh to invest in a VC fund to support life science start-ups
The University of Edinburgh is to invest in a venture capital fund focusing on early stage life sciences companies. The new fund, which will be managed by US-based Rock Spring Ventures, will engage closely with the University’s company formation teams at Edinburgh Research and Innovation and Edinburgh BioQuarter. Spin-out and start-up companies from the University’s research labs will make up […]
University of Minnesota announces two venture funds
The University of Minnesota plans to launch two venture capital funds next year, one of which will invest in startup companies that license university technology. The fund backing university startups will total $20 million in size and will make seed-stage investments over a 10-year period. A separate $50 million fund will invest in startups nationwide. The university’s […]
Global from Day One: New Zealand-based Sparkbox Ventures makes two investments from seed fund
The Global from Day One Fund – the new seed investment fund established by Sparkbox Ventures and the ICEHO– USE – has made its first two investment commitments into two technology companies, Mohio and Stay Today. Andrew Duff, Sparkbox’s chairman, saidGlobal from Day One’s key criteriais to invest in new technology companies with an international […]
University of Florida start-up, AGTC, lands $37.5M in VC for novel approaches to curing rare genetic respiratory and retinal diseases
An Alachua-based biotechnology company has secured $37.5 million in venture capital funding in what is believed to be the largest private venture deal ever for an area company. Applied Genetic Technologies Corp. announced that a syndicate of three new investors has joined three existing investors in the funding round to move its genetic therapies through […]
Testament to the challenges in implementing state-supported venture funds
A hard-to-pass proposal to use tax dollars to boost private investment in Wisconsin start-up companies could find its way into the next state budget bill, giving it a pathway through the legislative traps that ensnared it last session, a key state senator said Tuesday. Also Tuesday, the fix-it executive for Gov. Scott Walker’s troubled jobs […]
Innovacorp funds Nova Scotia universities through Early Stage Commercialization Fund
Innovacorp is a Canadian early-stage venter firm that supports Nova Scotia research universities and community colleges through their Early Stage Commercialization Fund. Their investment interests are wide and supported projects can receive up to $50,000 per investment. These monies go to technologies with medium to high technology readiness levels.
Convertible Equity vs. Convertible Debt
In the most recent Mind the Gap report, we found that ~75% of the 23 surveyed startup-focused gap funds (business formation, business growth) were structured to accept equity (70%)/convertible debt (30%) as a return/repayment strategy. This recent article from Fortune, suggests a convertible equity versus convertible debt strategy for pre/seed staged-companies. A traditional convertible debt […]
Xfund, new Cambridge fund set to support innovation at Harvard, others
In January, The Experiment Fund (Xfund) launched as an early-stage seed fund through backing from storied venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. Anchored at Harvard, what the Xfund was able to develop was a partnership between two of the longest living institutions in their respective fields. “When anyone designs any institution, they always want it to […]
Dell Sets Up $60M Storage Start-up Fund
Dell also said the computer maker has established a $60 million venture fund to invest in storage technologies. The fund will back startups that aim to house growing amounts of data at businesses with fewer than 50,000 employees, for example, and those building computer servers with solid-state storage, the CEO said at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech […]