Incubator leader Jeff Stinson named director of recently launched Innovation Fund which plans to invest in Arkansas spinouts.
A fund recently launched by the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub (ARIH) has named Jeff Stinson as its director.
Stinson is currently director of ARIH’s co-working space Silver Mine, and is also the manger for Arkansas’ Future, the state’s largest angel fund, and previously headed up Arkansas University at Little Rock’s tech transfer office TechLaunch.
The Innovation Fund will act as a for-profit investment fund, contrary to ARIH which runs as a non-profit, and will be looking to provide seed funding along with training, mentorship, team building services to university spinouts from within the state. The size of the fund or limited partners in the fund were not disclosed.
Stinson said: “The creation of the Innovation Fund addresses the most glaring gap in our state’s equity capital spectrum for startup companies. Our goal will be to train and position those startups to receive the angel and venture capital that is already available, and by doing that the Innovation Fund has the potential to jump-start entrepreneurship in a way that’s never been done in Arkansas.”