Some exciting news is coming out of the Center for Entrepreneurship just in time for the holidays!
The CFE has been awarded a $300K Federal Economic Development Administration grant to build upon the U-M Biomedical Seed Fund’s early momentum.
This grant will allow the center to expand its capacity to source new early-stage investment opportunities and conduct due diligence on potential companies. It will also augment resources to mentor portfolio companies and support follow-on funding efforts. Overall, it should provide more opportunity to continue collaboration with regional seed funds and national investor network. This will enable portfolio companies to grow connections and successfully raise the next stage of capital. The fund anticipates raising an additional $7-10 million of seed capital and making investments in 25 companies over the next five years.
The Federal EDA program’s Regional Innovation Strategies initiative states that, “The FY18 Seed Fund Support Program provides funding for technical assistance to support the creation, launch, or expansion of equity-based, cluster-focused seed funds that invest regionally-managed risk capital in regionally-based startups with a potential for high growth.”
In the application process, the CFE received letters of support from the MEDC, Invest Detroit, the Michigan Venture Capital Association, U-M’s own endowment and also the Monroe-Brown Foundation. The grant states the award cannot be used for investment.
“We are very excited as this will allow us to add an analyst to the fund to help source incoming deals and manage the growing portfolio of companies,” says Hirak Parikh, Monroe-Brown Biomedical Seed Fund Manager.
Parikh also said that having this grant will help add support as the fund’s portfolio grows to more than the current nine companies. Parikh and his team’s focus for 2019 is to raise more capital and match an additional commitment from the M-B foundation, thus growing the fund to $10 million in 2019.
Thanks to this grant, advancements in medical technology are looking merry and bright for the CFE.