Penn State’s Garber Venture Capital Fund poised to enter new stage | Penn State University
The Garber Venture Capital Fund at the Penn State Smeal College of Business, which provides master of business administration (MBA) students with the opportunity to evaluate business opportunities and issue funding, is on the precipice of several dynamic changes. That’s the message Peter Whalen, the new director of the fund and clinical associate professor of […]
Carnegie Mellon University, GE Ventures team up to create $20M venture fund
Officials hope a new accelerator program and a $20 million venture fund started by Carnegie Mellon University and GE Ventures will draw the nation’s best advanced robotics firms to Pittsburgh and convince those already there to stay put. Carnegie Mellon’s National Robotics Engineering Center and GE Ventures, General Electric’s investment arm, have teamed up to […]
Venture Capitalist to donate $31M to Carnegie Mellon University for entrepreneurship initiatives
Carnegie Mellon University is getting a $31 million donation from venture capitalist James R. Swartz and his wife Susan to create a new center for entrepreneurship. The gift, the fifth-largest in the university’s history, will fund the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship and staffing for the center, a faculty chair, entrepreneurs-in-residence and scholarships and fellowships. CMU […]
$500K grant will drive innovation at Penn State TechCelerator
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced that the TechCelerator@State College is among the first of 26 recipients of the 2014 Regional Innovation Strategies program grants. Penn State received a $500,000 i6/Cluster Grant for Seed Capital Funds to further develop the TechCelerator@State College, a pre-accelerator that is specifically designed to allow technologists who have not identified […]
Penn faculty startup raises $100K from city’s StartUp PHL fund
The City of Philadelphia’s StartUp PHL angel fund has invested $100,000 in Penn faculty startup Gencore Systems. It’s the first time that the fund, run by First Round Capital’s Josh Kopelman, has backed a startup built on research done at a local university. It’s also notable because Gencore Systems is the first startup to come out of Penn’s […]
Penn State Innovation Fund moving good ideas forward
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In April 2014 the Penn State Research Foundation created The Fund for Innovation to promote commercialization of promising new ideas and discoveries generated by Penn State’s $800 million research enterprise. The primary goal is to create new companies and new jobs, and by doing so to increase the already sizable positive […]
Medical device startup benefits from Philadelphia seed fund
Two years after the city of Philadelphia launched a $3 million seed fund, the fund has invested in a medical device company — one of four companies to receive investments topping $700,000 and the only healthcare business among them.Velano Vascular received $400,000 from the fund. The medical device company is developing a needle-free approach to […]
Investment booms in Pittsburgh thanks to new venture fund
It’s hard to miss investment in Pennsylvania when it takes the form of a downtown high rise or new sports complex, but if you’re not in the business community, you may not be aware of the robust — less visible — investments that propel the state’s economy. In Pittsburgh in the first nine months of […]
University City Science Center receives million dollar grant to accelerate growth of new companies
Penn’s University City neighbor wants to facilitate startup development — and the federal government has taken note. The United States Economic Development Program, a government agency aimed at supporting sustainable job growth and the construction of durable regional economies, awarded the University City Science Center a million dollar grant to support its Phase 1 Ventures […]
Penn State Fund for Innovation aids research commercialization efforts
Innovation is the lifeblood of any great university. But transforming the results of basic research into a commercial product that can benefit society is a path strewn with many obstacles. The new Fund for Innovation is intended to make that road smoother for Penn State faculty and student entrepreneurs to travel. The Fund for Innovation […]