Faculty, students and alumni are set to benefit from the $200m vehicle, set up by the Technion Research & Development Foundation and UG Capital Management.
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has unveiled a $200m venture capital fund that will support spinouts and startups emerging out of the university, as well as businesses launched by alumni.
The fund is a joint venture between the university’s non-profit subsidiary Technion Research and Development Foundation (TRDF) and UG Capital Management, the venture capital arm of fund management company UGI.
The fund’s management team will be based in Israel and Hong Kong. They include Jonathan Mitchell, CY Lau and Thomas Lau of UGI, as well as Eddy Shalev, Eyal Kishon and Gary Gannot, all three partners at Genesis Partners.
Jonathan Mitchell said: “You could say we are doing alchemy here. We have combined a number of components – the Israeli mind, institutional and private investors, and of course Technion and the local staff – and with all this we will contribute to the welfare of the world.”
Wayne Kaplan, executive vice-president for research and director general of TRDF, said: “The Technion has been increasing its commercialisation activities in recent years and we have already noted many successes in this field, including more than doubling the number of startup companies set up at the Technion through the new Technion Drive Accelerator.
“However, we must not become complacent. This is why we contacted Jonathan Mitchell from UGI, who connected us to investors from Hong Kong headed by CY Lau. We realised that in addition to partners in the US and Hong Kong, we need an excellent team here in Israel, and so we were joined by the founders of Genesis, Eddy Shalev, Eyal Kishon and Gary Gannot.”
