Research Bridge’s new seed fund will back spinouts in the central US states in a move intended to plug the dearth of venture capital availability compared with clusters on the west and east coasts.

Nonprofit commercialisation firm Research Bridge Partners yesterday launched a seed fund of undisclosed size to back high-potential university spinouts based in the central US states. The vehicle’s limited partners have not been named. Research Bridge Partners was founded in 2016 with the mission of remedying the shortage of early-stage venture capital in most US states, when compared to the traditional US tech powerhouses in California, New York and Massachusetts. Similarly, the fund has been established to funnel venture dollars into spinouts in the central US, which have received approximately one-fifth of US venture investments over the past five years, despite central US institutions accounting for about three-quarters of federal research grant awards. By providing seed capital, Research Bridge hopes more central US spinouts will survive until investors clustered on the west and east coasts regard them as viable commercial prospects. Research Bridge has secured the fund through certain US tax benefits as a “program-related investments”, due to its nonprofit prioritisation of spinout creation over the maximising of portfolio returns. The vehicle’s scouting operation will draw upon Research Bridge algorithms and models evaluating public data on more than 50,000 principal investigators from across the US. Reid Hoffman, chairman of the board at Research Bridge Partners, said: “Silicon Valley’s unique capabilities and culture are a powerful engine for new company creation and scaling, but it is essential that the benefits of that engine [do] not accrue only a handful of zip codes.” Isaac Barchas, chief executive of Research Bridge Partners, added: “This complements our ongoing efforts to support and enable academic innovators in the middle of the country by funding foundational corporate activities to activate the downstream venture cycle.”

Subscribe to go deeper

GCV subscribers get access to all our proprietary data and deep-dive articles, as well as the global directory of CVC investors.



Not sure if you have a subscription?