VCU Ventures has launched with a founders-friendly licensing policy and will look to provide programs that benefit the university’s spinout ecosystem.
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) today opened a new division called VCU Ventures to build programs, policies and partnerships that support the development of spinouts.
VCU Ventures will seek to address concerns that VCU emerging technologies often fail to create interest on traditional venture capital markets as they are too early stage.
Better support of the university’s spinout ecosystem is expected to open more opportunity for the university to drive societal and economic impact.
The unit will connect external entrepreneurs with promising university technologies by flagging up funding opportunities and providing supports such as co-working space and pre-accelerator programs.
VCU Ventures will be situated within the office of research and innovation, and will complement university tech transfer office Innovation Gateway and the student entrepreneurship-focused da Vinci Center.
To coincide with its launch, VCU Ventures has introduced a favourable licensing policy called the Founders First Express License which restricts VCU to a 5% ownership interest in spinouts at incorporation.
Founders First Express also discards of royalties, fees and milestone payments otherwise due on emerging technologies while allowing the spinout to pursue its own sublicensing arrangements.
Nicole Monk, director of VCU Ventures, said the move would avoid burdening newly-launched companies with obligations that could handicap their attempts to find investors, staff and partnerships.
She added: “These terms are designed to be executed quickly for the benefit of the startup. They will also allow entrepreneurs to be more comfortable executing a licence option and investing their own time in evaluating a particular technology, because they have a clear understanding of the licensing terms up front.
“Startups represent a unique commercialisation pathway – so the programs, resources and terms we offer need to reflect that. These terms are bold and send a clear signal to entrepreneurs and investors that VCU is open for business.”