As Philadelphia-based Drexel University prepares to open its school of entrepreneurship this fall, it has launched a venture arm to identify and cultivate entrepreneurs in its community. Drexel Ventures will manage an innovation fund to provide pre-seed investment in companies at the proof-of-concept stage. It is also rolling out an incubator to support startups and move them closer to market.
The fund’s mandate includes identifying and supporting business development opportunities, expediting intellectual property licensing, supporting business incubator and accelerator programs, and connecting Drexel’s community of innovators to other entrepreneurs and funding sources in the national innovation ecosystem, according to a statement from the university.
Although the university’s biomedical engineering programs and startups have received support from the Coulter Foundation, the idea is to offer more support to a broader mix of businesses.
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John Fry, the president of the university, told reporters at a press conference that it’s partly designed to make Philadelphia more competitive with the likes of innovation hubs Palo Alto and Boston and better able to retain talent.
“The general challenge at hand is how do we take all the talent that we have here in Philadelphia, keep it here and allow it to function within an innovation ecosystem that produces new businesses, new jobs and creates a virtuous cycle. We have seen different communities around the country, most specifically Cambridge and Palo Alto thrive because of the ecosystem that had been created between the universities, the healthcare organizations and businesses and what has happened as a result of that. And we have never seemed to capture the right ingredients here in Philadelphia, even though when you take a look at it from a talent perspective or asset perspective, we seem to have the same if not more so than those other communities. So what we have tried to do somewhat systematically over the last several years is ask ourselves, ‘How can we build a proper innovation ecosystem?'”
One element will include accelerating commercialization. Although technology transfer will be part of it, the university also wants to extend the runway for entrepreneurs.
Investments made with its innovation fund will include a mix of grants and investments that take equity in companies that come out of the accelerator. It also expects to make seed investments in companies.
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One priority will be to create more corporate partnerships. The majority of the university’s $115 million in sponsored research comes from government grants from National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Asked what other universities had programs similar to the one Drexel is adopting, MIT, University of Michigan, Stanford University and Georgia Tech were mentioned.
The goal is for Drexel Ventures to be the front door for its entrepreneur programs for investors, collaborating companies and other entrepreneurs locally and nationally.
“This is a notorious thing at universities that academics don’t know where to get the support to determine the right pathway for their company,” said Fry. “When people want to get access to capital there’s no front door. We want to give a front door to help people get engaged in Drexel.”
Other universities in Philadelphia have been keen to support entrepreneurs. University of Pennsylvania’s UpStart program is an incubator that’s part of its Office of Technology Transfer program. Its Wharton Business School offers an undergraduate an MBA in entrepreneurial management. Temple University’s Fox School of Business has an innovation and entrepreneurship institute and the university also offers undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship programs.
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