GE Ventures has become the founding sponsor of a $20m Pittsburgh-based accelerator aimed at startups developing robotics technologies.
US-based venture capital fund Coal Hill Ventures launched an accelerator for robotics technology startups on Tuesday with funding from GE Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of conglomerate General Electric.
Coal Hill plans on raising $20m for the fund by the end of 2015, and to begin investing between $200,000 and $2m in startups from early 2016. The accelerator will welcome 20 to 30 companies developing technologies based on advanced robotics.
The accelerator was born out of discussions between Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, local robotics technology developers in the university’s Pittsbugh home, and companies operating in the robotics industry nationally.
Chris Moehle, the managing director of Coal Hill who previously served as associate director for new ventures at the university’s National Robotics Engineering Centre, will head the Robotic Hub accelerator.
Alex Tepper, managing director of GE Ventures, said: “We look forward to staying close to this evolving ecosystem. We are here to invest time and resources in companies looking to help push the boundaries of industrial robotics, among other areas of strategic interest.”
Moehle added: “We think, in a relatively short amount of time, Pittsburgh will be the place people come to start their robotics company.
“Between GE Ventures, Carnegie Mellon, its National Robotics Engineering Centre and the broader Pittsburgh ecosystem, there is a tangible resource pool that is hard to find anywhere else.”
This article first appeared on our sister site Global Corporate Venturing.
