Wolverine Venture Fund
The $5.5 million dollar Wolverine Venture Fund invests primarily in early stage companies. The Fund is one of the world’s first VC funds where students are partners in the investment decision-making process. The Fund’s students members seek, screen and negotiate investments and develop significant experience in these areas – and in working with VCs and entrepreneurs. A ten-member advisory board of professional venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, and approximately 28 MBA students participate in managing this multi-million dollar fund.
Frankel Commercialization Fund
The pre-seed Frankel Commercialization Fund places teams of MBAs with University of Michigan researchers. Frankel Fund participants evaluate and invest in early stage entrepreneurial opportunities, and learn about the commercialization evaluation process and how to be a seed investor. Teams work closely with medical and engineering research units and with the Office of Technology Transfer for University-owned ideas in the process of commercialization. The Fund is also supported by an advisory board comprised of individuals who have been successful in developing early-stage companies, markets and technologies.
Social Venture Fund
Launched in September of 2009, the Social Venture Fund (SvF) plans to invest in for-profit social enterprises. The newest of the student-led investment funds, SvF will target and invest in innovative companies that place the generation of a significant social impact at the heart of their mission and way of doing business. SvF aims to support the expansion and proliferation of enterprises that respond to societal needs that would otherwise not be met as effectively or at all by other market players. As the premier student-run social venture fund, SvF aims to optimize the blended value of financial and social returns on investments and to support the educational mission of the Ross School of Business in the areas of socially- and environmentally-driven venture investing and entrepreneurship.
Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies.
