MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., July 20, 2022 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — innovosource will host its fifth annual COVERGENCE Summit from Oct. 20-21, 2022, at the University of Utah Rice-Eccles Stadium Club. The event gathers more than 60 university gap fund/accelerator programs (GAP) and potential commercial and investment partners to discuss best practices and review portfolios and investable projects and startups.
Image caption: innovosource fifth annual COVERGENCE Summit.
Jacob Johnson, innovosource founder, works to bridge the gap between researchers, investors and corporations and says that there is a real opportunity to address the lack of early-stage capital and innovation development support through strong university GAP fund and investor partnerships
“These summits serve as the meeting place to introduce investors to GAP program leaders and their pipelines of promising technologies and startups. By aligning with these programs, investors will see high-potential opportunities that have already gone through significant de-risking and validation. They are at the place where they are seeking investment and commercial partners to take the technologies and startups to market,” he says.
Interested investors will benefit in multiple ways. They’ll gain inside access to a wide array of investable tech/startups coming out of these gap-fund and accelerator programs and will get to experience direct relationship building with executive program leaders and portfolio managers, leveraging $88 B+ in research funding per year. Investors will also gain insights into emerging technology advances and themes while learning how to finesse early-stage investment strategies for programs that produce a high-rate of investable and ready-to-commercialize technologies and startups.
Universities and hospitals are leading through the implementation of university gap funding (proof of concept, startup, venture) and accelerator programs to bridge this “valley of death.” Over the past 15 years, these programs have evolved into sophisticated investment, evaluation, development, and commercialization support mechanisms to nurture the most promising opportunities in emerging, high-growth technology areas.
Smart companies and investors are taking notice and making it a strategic, external innovation priority to partner with these gap fund and accelerator programs through applied research, proof of concept projects, seed and venture investments, and advisory/mentorship in return for insights, competitive positioning, and access to future technology and startups.
innovource’s most recent landscape report reveals that 176 gap-fund and accelerator programs from 97 universities have:
- invested $665MM of their internal funds into more than 1,500 startups and 1,000 corporate-licensed technologies;
- realized $8B+ in direct follow-on investment from PE, family offices, and angels
- originated 90 percent of opportunities from institutions outside of Boston, New York, and Silicon Valley; and
- supported a diverse portfolio of applications in biopharma and medical devices, software and apps and food, agriculture and energy.
From partner panels and investor focus groups to happy hour mixers and fund/accelerator program and portfolio briefs this event is designed to be exclusively intimate, capping registrants at 150.
“We keep events intimate to maximize relationship building and knowledge exchange. Attendees will have ample time to meet each other and provide a basis to carry those relationships forward long after COVERGENCE,” Johnson says.
A former attendee said, “COVERGENCE offers insight into a niche industry that the corporate and investment worlds are neglecting. There is a huge opportunity for collaboration and partnership to help university-founded startups scale their businesses.”
Cost for investors to attend COVERGENCE 2022 is $499 that includes registration and access to the pre-event partnering site and opportunity database.
For more information and to register, visit: https://www.innovosource.com/covergence-2022 .
About innovosource:
Over the past 15 years, innovosource (https://www.innovosource.com/) has worked with and supported hundreds of gap funding programs around the world. By partnering with research institutions and affiliates, innovosource informs, connects, and advocates for technology and startup gap funding and accelerator support programs.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Jacob Johnson
of innovosource
connect @ innovosource.com
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News Source: innovosource