A new venture capital fund targeting founders with ties to the University of Washington launched Tuesday.
The fund, called Pack Ventures, will support students, faculty and alumni connected to the university, and the fund is open to those both on and off campus. Pack Ventures already has more than 35 founding investors but is looking for more the join, and the fund has so far secured between $2 million and $3 million, according to a spokesperson.
“Pack VC complements UW’s proven expertise in supporting spinouts and entrepreneurial students with the work done at CoMotion, The Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, and dozens of other programs, providing founders access to capital, reigniting their connection to UW, and providing motivation for them to give back both knowledge and capital,” Ken Horenstein, founder and partner at Pack Ventures, said in a news release.
Pack Ventures is a 506c fund, meaning it can be advertised to investors through means like social media but is still limited to accredited investors. The fund is hosting an online information session about joining Pack Ventures on Feb. 17. Its founding investors include Mike Fridgen, managing director at Madrona Venture Labs; Cameron Borumand, general partner at Fuse; and Pioneer Square Labs co-founder Geoff Entress.
In addition to Horenstein, Beth Kolko is leading Pack Ventures as a venture partner. Horenstein spent more than two years at Microsoft's venture fund M12 and co-founded Venture Out, which helps entrepreneurs leave their tech day jobs to start their own companies. Kolko was the founder and CEO of Shift Labs for nine years. She has also been a professor for more than 20 years.
According to Pack Ventures, the fund aims to support between 25 and 30 founders over the next two to three years, mostly at the pre-seed and seed stage.
Pack Ventures has already invested in five startups: the gene regulator startup Talus.bio, the biosensor company Monod Bio, the sensor network company Jeeva Wireless, and two stealth companies.
UW has already produced some impressive startups over the years. In November, OctoML and its co-founder and CEO Luis Ceze, who is also a professor at the UW Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, raised $85 million. Turi, meanwhile, was sold to Apple in 2016 for about $200 million. The company's founder and CEO, Carlos Guestrin, is also a UW professor.
“The startup and venture ecosystem continues to be very homogenous and based on closed networks of capital and knowledge,” Kolko said in a news release. “Pack VC offers a solution for entrepreneurs who don’t have deep-pocketed friends and family networks, leveling the venture playing field. We strive to bring Silicon Valley mentorship and investing style to the UW ecosystem, encouraging fast-paced, iterative company building that generates returns."
