Looney joins UNCW’s Seahawk fund

US-based University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) has helped set up a university venturing fund to “support business and economic development” in the Wilmington area.

The Seahawk Fund will fund start-ups and be part of the school’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) and UNCW Research Foundation. However, the Seahawk Fund itself is not the university’s directly, but rather that it is privately run and affiliated with UNCW through a public-private partnership.

The CIE will house the university’s Small Business and Technology Development Center, emerging businesses, future technology transfer operations and the venture fund run by Tom Looney (pictured), serial entrepreneur and angel investor Tobin Geatz and Dallas Romanowski, as well as the centre’s director.

Looney spent nearly five years as a partner at early-stage venture capital fund Stellagen Capital, while Romanowski is managing partner of Cornerstone Advisory Partners, as well as the executive fund director for the IMAF Cape Fear Angel Fund.

The university hopes to grow the fund to $20m, said Max Allen, chief of staff in the chancellor’s office, according to an interview with news provider WECT-TV6.

However, it said: “UNCW cannot and will not make a cash investment in the fund – instead, a university-affiliated entity will provide office space and personnel, as well as administrative support and services, including the licensure of certain university intellectual property in exchange for its limited partnership interest in the Fund.”

Gary Miller, UNCW chancellor, said: “Our community has the potential to be a real catalyst for business development and start-up success. We want to help champion those entrepreneurs with the structure and resources that could lead to long-term, sustainable growth, new jobs for our area, and the establishment of Wilmington as a hotbed of innovative business development.”
Other universities in the US setting up funds include UNC-Chapel Hill’s $4.4m Kenan-Flagler Private Equity Fund run by its students and University of Minnesota’s Office of Technology Commercialization’s two funds: one to provide seed money and one to support ventures that are slightly further along.