On Monday the Office of UC President Janet Napolitano announced the proposed creation of an independent venture capital fund called UC Ventures, which would be fueled with an initial commitment of as much as $250 million from the university system’s Office of the Chief Investment Officer.
The plan is pending approval from the university’s regents, who are expected to vote on the proposal on Thursday. UC Ventures could be launched as soon as 2015; no state funding or tuition will be used, university officials said.
The Office of the President explained the UC Ventures concept in an online post Monday:
“In addition to any financial benefits, we see this fund as a potential vehicle for providing resources to support the basic research and talent — among both faculty and students — required to develop innovations that can benefit California and the world,” said UC President Janet Napolitano. Recent examples of successful UC startups include Aragon (acquired by Johnson & Johnson in August 2013); Kite Pharma (IPO in June 2014); and Seragon (acquired by Genentech in July 2014). UC Ventures will be a stand-alone, independent investment vehicle structured to operate with a long-term, investment horizon. UC’s Office of the Chief Investment Officer will hold certain key governance rights and help UC Ventures develop its own resident expertise to mitigate risks. The UC Ventures team will have day-to-day investment management responsibilities. In collaboration with its 10 campuses, UC also intends to create an independent advisory board of leading figures in Silicon Valley and California to provide advice and industry insight to UC Ventures. These advisory board members will be announced in the coming months.
This staff report was originally published by Techwire, a sister publication to Government Technology that covers IT in California state and local government.
