The University of Connecticut Launches $1.5M Early Stage Fund

The University of Connecticut, in partnership with Connecticut Innovations (CI) and Webster Bank, has established a $1.5m fund to provide early-stage financial support to new business startups affiliated with UConn.

Managed by the UConn Evaluation Board, fund managers, and an investment committee comprised of representatives from UConn, CI, and Webster Bank, UConn Innovation Fund provides investments of up to $100k to companies founded by students, faculty members, and alumni of the university with an in-state business startup tied to research, advanced technologies, or innovations developed at UConn.
The fund has already backed three biotech startups. They are:
– Torigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a startup housed in UConn’s Technology Incubation Program (TIP) focused on providing veterinary cancer care solutions for companion animals using the animals’ existing tumor cells to fight the disease.
– Bioarray Genetics, Inc., a molecular diagnostics company focused on changing the way that cancer patients are evaluated and treated with tests that predict patient response to cancer treatments. Bioarray is housed at UConn’s Technology Incubation Program facility at UConn Health in Farmington.
– Shoreline Biome, LLC., a UConn TIP company focused on understanding how the human microbiome functions across the entire landscape of human health and disease.

The next deadline for applications is July 14, 2017. Businesses interested in learning more about the fund should go to: innovationfund.uconn.edu.

FinSMEs

22/04/2017

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