A University of California, Berkeley graduate sets up a $6m fund to support companies emerging from the university in their pre-seed and seed rounds.
A $6m venture fund has been created with the sole purpose of supporting startups from University of California, Berkeley.
Until this point University of California had eight accelerators but no fund to offer investment into the startups it supported. The fund will make pre-seed and seed stage investments in companies.
The fund has been created by Jeremy Fiance, a graduate of the university, who saw the need for financial support of startups when he was studying at the university.
While working on his own company, he found a subculture of startups being developed by students without any input or support from the university. He created the Kairos Society Berkeley, aimed at supporting the startup community in the university.
He went on to develop Free Ventures, an accelerator backed by a small grant through the Big Ideas competition. Free Ventures provided startups with support and, more importantly, capital.
These two organisations supported more than 50 startups that have since raised more than $50m.
Having graduated from the university, he has created the House Fund to invest in spinouts and startups emerging from the university.
Fiance said: “I realised that building the House Fund, the one and only fund built by and for Berkeley startups, was not only necessary, it was inevitable given the number and quality of startups being built here.”
