The University of Pennsylvania has launched the $200 million Futures Fund Partnership for Innovation, targeting technologies emerging out of its School of Engineering and Applied Science.
The money has been donated by philanthropists, including alumni and industry leaders, and any proceeds generated will be reinvested.
The Futures Fund isn’t a VC fund, but rather aims to fill a gap in federal research funding. However, one of its stated goals is to enable faculty to launch spinouts by providing capital at critical research points.
The fund will also help researchers secure major external grants and develop new research and paedagogical collaborations.
It will target three key research areas: human health, sustainable infrastructure, and physical intelligence. Any proceeds generated will be reinvested into the fund.
“Early-stage research dollars are the hardest to find and the highest in impact. At a time when federal and institutional funding is becoming more constrained, the Futures Fund steps in at exactly the right moment — seed capital that unlocks game-changing innovation before anyone else is willing to fund it.”
Robert Stavis, university trustee and chair of Penn Engineering’s board of advisors
In January, the University of Pennsylvania partnered with Osage University Partners and mRNA-based therapies developer BioNTech to create the $50 million Penn-BioNTech Innovative Therapeutics Seed Fund (PxB Fund).
This followed an announcement the previous month that the institution was establishing a $10 million investment vehicle, using its own money, called the StartUP Fund.
