GAP Community News
The University Gap Funding/Accelerator Weekly update, a resource for those interested in university-affiliated translational research, proof of concept, startup, and venture gap fund/accelerator program
University Gap Funding and Accelerator Community News
Marblar aims to support university commercialization through competitions and crowdsourcing
Some crowdsourcing competitions, like the X-Prize, ask people to come up with technological solutions to a problem. Marblar, a startup launching this month, is doing it backward—asking people to come up with problems that a given technology could solve.
Portland Seed Fund touts third round of start-ups, raising a second fund
Portland Seed Fund Funding: $3 million from private and public sources, including $800,000 from the city of Portland, $250,000 from Hillsboro and $500,000 from the Oregon Growth Account (funded by state lottery dollars). The plan: Seed two dozen companies over
U of New Hampshire awards innovation grant to coating company
The Innovation Research Center at the University of New Hampshire has awarded a Granite State Technology Innovation Grant to ArgenTech Solutions, Inc. (AgTS) to help develop a high-performance, photoluminescent powder coating additive suitable for advanced safety and military applications.
University of York offers proof of concept funding for social entrepreneurs
THE University of York is to encourage a new generation of social entrepreneurs. The university is one of 56 universities to take part in a pilot of a national programme to encourage the creation of social enterprises, self-sustaining initiatives to achieve
IP Shakti, offers proof of concept approach and funds for life science and biomedical innovation
IP Shakti, LLC, a Princeton based innovation fund, offers a new approach for investing in the early stages of life science and biomedical innovation. University inventors often face the “valley of death” funding gap when they look to develop a
U-M’s New Drug Discovery Center to Commercialize Research; provide seed grants
Last week, the University of Michigan announced a new Center for the Discovery of New Medicines (CDNM) to help speed the school’s research findings to the marketplace. The new initiative is a cross-departmental effort to leverage resources like former Pfizer researchers, unique libraries of compounds, and a culture of
Coulter Foundation funds five University of Missouri translational research projects
In 2011, Coulter agreed to provide $200,000 in startup funds as well as $666,667 each year for five years, while MU kicks in $333,333 per year over the same period, totaling $5.2 million. Each research project this year will receive
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,
Mayo Clinic, venture firms team to support Rock Health tech incubator fund
After two years of nurturing medical-technology companies–including one that turns an iPhone into a functioning microscope and another making games to sharpen mental acuity–San Francisco incubator Rock Health has formed a partnership with several venture firms that will see more
Estonian Tallinn University offers Prototron Fund with help from Swedbank
On the 14th of August prototype fund called “Prototron” was launched by Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol, Swedbank and Tallinn University of Technology. The aim of the fund is to finance the development of first products – prototypes. Swedbank will financing fund