Stanford University produces more alumni entrepreneurs than any other university, and now it’s created its first fund to invest directly in those early-stage companies emerging from the university community.
Stanford has established a three-year partnership with Stanford Hospital & Clinics and StartX, an accelerator for students, faculty, alumni and staff, under which the institutions will support the accelerator and create a fund called the Stanford-StartX Fund.
Teams that take part in the StartX accelerator will now have optional access to financial backing from the university and hospital if they are raising $500,000 or more in a round. The fund, which Stanford says is uncapped, will participate in rounds as a minority investor.
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Already it’s approved commitments to six companies, including Knotch, an app that connects like-minded people based on shared interests, and Cytobank, an online platform for managing, sharing and analyzing single-cell technologies.
Under the partnership, Stanford University and Stanford Hospital & Clinics will also grant $1.2 million annually to StartX for the next three years. The accelerator says the funds should cover about half of its operating budget and will help it continue to develop its program, which includes a section devoted to medical and biotechnology entrepreneurs called StartX Med.
In addition to Stanford’s funding commitment, StartX has raised $1.65 million over the past two years from Kauffman Foundation, Microsoft, Blackstone Foundation, Cisco, Intuit, Greylock Ventures and AOL. Launched in the summer of 2010, the accelerator has graduated 109 startups, 10 of which have been acquired. Big data company NuMedii and telemedicine provider DermLink.md are two of StartX Med’s most promising graduates.
[Image credit: startx_flckr]