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Seed Capital Fund
The Hatchery Seed Capital Fund (HSCF) was established in 2000 with a generous gift from Bob and Julie Skandalaris. HSCF was one part of their support for expanding entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis. A second part of their gift supported the creation of curriculum and faculty support that increased entrepreneurship offerings for both undergraduate and graduate students at Washington University. The HSCF is one activity in the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, which offers an integrated entrepreneurship learning experience allowing students to both study and experience entrepreneurship. The Center does this by:
- Meshing academic and application approaches to learning
- Designing and delivering a rigorous curriculum
- Forming numerous partnerships spanning Washington University and the St. Louis community
The primary purpose of the HSCF is to promote learning in the area of venture capital investing while promoting entrepreneurial activity at Washington University. The Fund provides a source of capital for student-started ventures and connects students to community entrepreneurs. The secondary goal of the HSCF is to provide scholarship support, through the use of income from HSCF funds, and give financial aid to entrepreneurially-oriented students.
The fund has evaluated numerous investment opportunities and completed three investment transactions totaling $120,000 since 2002:
- $50,000 was invested in Proteoplex, Inc., a life sciences high throughput screening company. The HSCF received common equity and warrants. Proteoplex was acquired in 2003.
- In 2004 the HSCF made offers to invest in Innovium Corp and Crazy Cadence. Innovium is a leader in the evolving field of natural or “green” chemistry. They have developed a new proprietary platform which makes environmentally friendly high performance products from functionalized polyamino acid polymers and other biodegradable renewable resources. This platform forms the base for a variety of new, groundbreaking products in the agriculture, water treatment and cosmetic ingredients industries. Crazy Cadence was a student started venture producing and distributing specialty music. Both companies received funding from alternative sources and seed capital funds were not invested.
- In 2005 the HSCF made two investments totaling $70,000. The University acquired $50,000 in common stock in Luminomics, a biotechnology company that develops regenerative drug therapies for degenerative diseases. The company uses zebrafish as live models for identifying and validating potential therapeutic compounds.. A note for $20,000 was purchased in The Blessing Basket Project, a not-for-profit company that imports baskets made by weavers in undeveloped countries. Blessing Basket was the HSCF’s first social entrepreneurship venture investment.
- In 2006, the fund expects to make investments in the two Olin Cup winning teams announced in December 2005, Somark Innovations and i-Mobile Access Technologies (IMAT).
The Hatchery Seed Fund is used for two purposes:
- To support expansion of the Olin Cup Competition, to ensure that the Competition becomes a cross campus collaboration involving the John M. Olin School of Business with other Washington University students and members of the St. Louis start-up community; to ensure that winners of the collaborative competition receive HSCF funding commitments to support the founding of their companies; to support organization and promotion of the Olin Cup Competition including collaboration and educational sessions that promote learning and company formation; to invest in other ventures that offer good return opportunities.
- To fund scholarships that attract entrepreneurial students to Washington University. Develop a process that promotes networking with experienced entrepreneurs, the development of student skills and entrepreneurial career opportunities.
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