The Graduate Syndicate has closed a $7 million fund to support seed and pre-seed ventures founded by recent Harvard graduates, Jeff Bussgang told BostInno this week.
Bussgang, a general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, started The Graduate Syndicate in 2016 with a fund of $2.5 million. He is a Harvard College and Harvard Business School graduate and has taught at the latter for 10 years. Bussgang manages the fund alongside more than 20 limited partners that include Harvard Business School faculty and alumni.
After seeing countless startups form in his classes, Bussgang created this fund to give these ventures an early lift.
“One of the things I’m very struck by as a venture capitalist is that in today’s environment, you can start these companies so early at such a young stage,” Bussgang said. “As a fund and as an ecosystem, we want to have as many of these founders get that pre-seed and seed capital to get going at inception. It’s just really good for the ecosystem.”
In 2019, Bussgang announced The Graduate Syndicate’s second fund worth $4 million. Bussgang said they’ve invested in about 60 companies through the first two funds, and 40% of these startups had a female founder or co-founder.
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The Graduate Syndicate continues to grow, with each round nearly double the previous amount. Bussgang said each fund typically lasts three years, with a third of the fund used each year. The typical investment size is $100,000 to $200,000.
Several companies that The Graduate Syndicate invested in have made headlines recently, including Tomorrow.io, a weather intelligence company. The startup merged with Pine Technology Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: PTOC) in a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, late last year. The online education platform Osmosis, which also received funding, was acquired by London-based Elsevier in November.
There are several other funds for Harvard graduates, including the recently launched Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator and Yard Ventures, which is part of the Alumni Ventures Group.
