Thursday, May 13, 2004

UCLA Creates Venture Investment Fund

The University of California, Los Angeles said yesterday that it has created a special investment fund created to accelerate laboratory technology developed at the school into commercial companies. The new fund will provide up to $25,000 to individual faculty whose research show promise in the marketplace but lacks other funding. The new $300K fund includes equal contributions from venture firms Cycad Group, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Zone Ventures, and gives those investment groups first option to invest in any startups that result from the fund. The UCLA fund has already awarded a grant to Dr. Farhad Parhami, an associate professor of medicine for further developing technology for the treatment of osteoporosis. UCLA said that it is also looking for contributions from additional venture firms.