New resource will serve local students and alumni worldwide.
Early-stage venture fund launches
New resource will serve local students and alumni worldwide.
“We are very excited about the Experiment Fund; we believe it will provide a much-needed set of people, skills, and financial resources to spur the innovation and idea creation of our students,” says Cherry A. Murray, dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences./ Photo courtesy of SEAS
When the “next big thing” is invented in a dorm room, ruminated over in a late-night café, or discovered in a laboratory, it will now find more support in the Cambridge area, giving its inventors a better reason to stay connected.
Today, the Experiment Fund, a new seed-stage investment fund, opens its doors with backing from storied venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Designed specifically to support student start-ups and nurture novel technologies and platforms created in Cambridge (or by innovators educated in Cambridge), the Experiment Fund will eventually include additional strategic angel investors and advisers.
“We are very excited about the Experiment Fund; we believe it will provide a much-needed set of people, skills, and financial resources to spur the innovation and idea creation of our students,” says Cherry A. Murray, dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).
Murray, who helped to realize the fund, will designate SEAS faculty members to advise student entrepreneurs about the Experiment Fund and other available opportunities and resources, such as the new Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab).
The idea to provide an intensely local company-building resource to young innovators originally grew out of close collaboration between venture capitalist Patrick Chung, academic and entrepreneur David Edwards, and scholar-turned-entrepreneur Hugo Van Vuuren.
“Cambridge has always seeded and cultivated brilliant minds and entrepreneurs, and now they’ll have another reason to stay rooted in and draw strength from these fertile soils,” says Chung, who is co-head of NEA’s consumer and seed-stage investing practices.
Chung received his A.B. degree in environmental science from Harvard College and a joint J.D.-M.B.A. degree from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School.
“Students will have an obvious place to go once they breach the boundary of the classroom,” adds Edwards, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering at SEAS and founder of Le Laboratoire in Paris.
“We are very excited to work with everyone on campus to infuse the fund with our global platform and entrepreneur-first tradition,” says Harry Weller, general partner at NEA and graduate of Harvard Business School.
Van Vuuren, a 2007 graduate of Harvard College, student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, adds, “The fund is looking for smart and resourceful people, zealous full-time teams, and experiments in need of seed funding and hands-on help to get off the ground.”
Designed to attract engineers, entrepreneurs, and designers and to empower them to test and build bold ideas, the Experiment Fund will explore three core areas: Information, health care, and energy technologies.
Chung, who serves as an expert-in-residence at SEAS, expects the fund to support several promising companies in the coming two years. Each new venture will receive up to $250,000 over that same period.
While the fund expects to cultivate student innovation initially at Harvard, it will function completely independently of the University and will invest broadly on the East Coast.
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About Harvard Medical School (HMS)
Driving Change. Building Momentum. Making History.
“Since 1872, Harvard Medical School has been the incubator of bold ideas—a place where extraordinary people advance education, science and health care with unrelenting passion.
Whether training tomorrow’s doctors and scientists, decoding the fundamental nature of life, advancing patient care or improving health delivery systems around the world, we are never at rest. Allied with some of the world’s best hospitals, research institutes and a University synonymous with excellence, the School’s mission remains as ambitious as it is honorable: to alleviate human suffering caused by disease.”
More at Harvard Medical School & Harvard Medical School. Generations of Leaders.
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About Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)
Harvard School of Public Health is dedicated to advancing the public’s health through learning, discovery and communication. More than 400 faculty members are engaged in teaching and training the 1,000-plus student body in a broad spectrum of disciplines crucial to the health and well being of individuals and populations around the world. Programs and projects range from the molecular biology of AIDS vaccines to the epidemiology of cancer; from risk analysis to violence prevention; from maternal and children’s health to quality of care measurement; from health care management to international health and human rights.
More at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) & Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). History.
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About Harvard University.
Established in 1636, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. The University, which is based in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts, has an enrollment of over 20,000 degree candidates, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Harvard has more than 360,000 alumni around the world.
Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders in many disciplines who make a difference globally. Harvard faculty are engaged with teaching and research to push the boundaries of human knowledge. For students who are excited to investigate the biggest issues of the 21st century, Harvard offers an unparalleled student experience and a generous financial aid program, with over $160 million awarded to more than 60% of our undergraduate students. The University has twelve degree-granting Schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, offering a truly global education.
‘Universities nurture the hopes of the world: in solving challenges that cross borders; in unlocking and harnessing new knowledge; in building cultural and political understanding; and in modeling environments that promote dialogue and debate… The ideal and breadth of liberal education that embraces the humanities and arts as well as the social and natural sciences is at the core of Harvard’s philosophy. ’/ Drew Gilpin Faust
More About Harvard University & About Harvard University. Information.
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* The above story is adapted from materials provided by Harvard University
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