Dive Brief:
- Sacramento Kings owner and TIBCO founder Vivek Ranadivé will lead a new venture fund for the University of California system, anchored with $250 million from the UC Investments Office and expected to grow with additional donations, including from Ranadivé.
- The Los Angeles Times reports the fund will have a presence throughout the entire state of California and Ranadivé plans to invest in projects across a range of areas, including technology, energy, life sciences, agriculture, and materials.
- UC President Janet Napolitano expects the access to capital for startups led by students, professors and alumni will help get the results of more high quality research into the marketplace.
Dive Insight:
TechCrunch reports the University of California has been granted more patents than any other university in the world and its investments office has about $100 billion in its portfolio. For universities that have the resources to offer financial support to researchers, helping get products to the marketplace can help create a more global brand for the university.
In California, many researchers have access to Silicon Valley venture capital, but many more surely forego the process of creating a startup to actually market their products because they cannot find or do not want to search for the money to do so.
According to data from 2,500 startups in 2013, Stanford produces by far the most venture capital-backed startup founders, followed by Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley and U Penn.