Waterloo’s VFF competition started in 2011 when Kik CEO and Velocity alumni Ted Livingston donated $1 million to support emerging startups with early-stage funding and received an additional $1 million from investor Mike Stork. The AngelList-powered venture fund will launch in March, making its first investments in the winners of the next Velocity Fund $25K. ![]() “With a solid track record of VF-winning companies valued at well over $1 billion, we believe this new venture fund can further grow Waterloo’s innovation sector and help the University continue to contribute to Canada’s economic development.” “Traditionally, the investment community has viewed early-stage startups as difficult to assess, high-risk and unproven, which has made it difficult for many innovators to access funds needed to take the first steps of building product and showing customer appetite,” said Jay Shah, director of Waterloo’s Velocity program. The awardees have collectively shown the ability to generate a return that outpaces an average venture capital fund. The new venture fund will replace a grant system used to fund awards in the incubator’s tri-annual Velocity Fund Finals (VFF) pitch competition at the University of Waterloo, which awards four $25,000 grants to new and emerging startups. Since launching 10 years ago, Velocity has helped launch 300 companies who have collectively raised over $850 million in funding. It will give investors a simple way to invest in a diversified portfolio of early-stage startups supported by Waterloo’s Velocity Garage. The new AngelList-powered venture fund, which will invest in startups in sectors ranging from software to biomedical, will launch this Spring. The University of Waterloo’s flagship entrepreneurship program, Velocity, is launching a venture fund that aims to connect early-stage startups to the capital they need. ![]() The full text of the news release is here: AngelList, founded in 2010 in San Francisco, is a website that connects investors with promising startups. The new fund, powered by the AngelList investment platform, will make it easier for investors to back the diverse portfolio of startups supported by the 10-year-old Velocity program, the university said Wednesday in a news release. Velocity, the University of Waterloo’s highly regarded startup entrepreneurship program, is launching a new venture fund to connect early-stage companies with much needed capital.
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