One of newest venture capital funds under the Badger Fund of Funds umbrella, the Madison-based Winnow Fund, is partnering with one of the Wisconsin's largest universities for potential investments into student startup ideas.
Through the partnership, Concordia University Wisconsin, which is located in Mequon, will become home to the fund's venture capitalist in residence office. The university's new Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center serves as an incubator space for student and community-led startups and will include space for Richelle Martin, the fund's managing director, where she will meet with campus students, faculty and staff about their startup ideas and offer mentorship, according to an announcement from the fund.
Concordia, which had an enrollment of roughly 6,000 students in the fall of 2019, is also an investor in the fund that was created to focus on pre-revenue startups built around product ideas created by college students in Wisconsin.
“I believe there’s untapped entrepreneurial potential at colleges and universities across the state of Wisconsin,” Martin said. “I’m looking forward to meeting with Concordia University’s entrepreneurs to leverage that potential and together build successful, high-growth companies here in the state.”
Earlier this year, the Badger Fund of Funds announced the Winnow Fund had raised $6 million in investment capital. Joining the Badger Fund of Funds as investors in the Winnow Fund are Madison digital newspaper The Capital Times; Johnsonville Ventures, the venture capital arm of sausage company Johnsonville LLC of Sheboygan Falls; Madison-based MGE Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: MGEE); Wisconsin-based private equity investment firms Inventure Capital and N29 Capital Partners; and more than two dozen individuals.
“The Winnow Fund venture capital in residence concept is truly innovative," said Ken Johnson, Badger Fund partner, in a statement. "Entrepreneurs in residence programs typically have been limited with only providing students support from a successful startup ecosystem. Yet, the need for investment capital with fundraising experience still exists. Combining both concepts at Concordia University will result in good outcomes for the Winnow Fund, Concordia, and Wisconsin entrepreneurs, a circumstance that led our team to increase the Badger Fund’s investment commitment in the Winnow Fund.”
Other Badger recipient funds include the Idea Fund of La Crosse, the Winnebago Seed Fund and the Rock River Capital Fund.
