Uniseed receives further backing from founding investors

The Universities of Queensland and Melbourne, the founding investors in university based pre-seed venture fund Uniseed, have extended their commitments to the fund by a further $8 million each.

This follows a $15 million partnership with Westscheme, Western Australia`s largest private sector superannuation fund, signed earlier this year, taking the total funds under management to over $50 million.

Established in 2000 as a $20 million joint venture between the commercial arms of the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne, Uniseed was the first specialist pre-seed commercialisation fund for university technology in Australia.

“We are delighted at the continued support from our founding universities. This is further recognition of the success of the Uniseed concept”, said Uniseed’s CEO, Mr Gareth Dando.

“The last 18 months have seen a number of highly significant developments for the fund. We have brought a major private investor to our partnership, secured five follow-on investments in our start-up companies, including a U.S. based Mayfield-led investment in telecommunications company Fultec, and most recently completed our first exit via a trade sale in the U.S.”.

”Uniseed has exceeded our expectations. It has proved to be a very valuable and effective way of exploiting our intellectual property, particularly in the early stages of the commercialisation cycle and making our technologies more attractive for follow-on investment”, said Mr Douglas Porter, Secretary and Registrar of the University of Queensland.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Professor Glyn Davis, says Uniseed has been a catalyst for significant research commercialisation activity in the University of Melbourne. “We look forward to Uniseed being even better equipped to continue its key role of investing in and developing research-based ventures at the University of Melbourne.”

Contact:
Gareth Dando
CEO - Uniseed
03-8344 3193

About Uniseed

Uniseed was established as a joint venture pre-seed and seed fund between UQ Holdings Ltd/UniQuest Pty Ltd and Melbourne Ventures Pty Limited, the commercial arms of the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne, respectively. It began operations in September 2000 as a $20 million early stage venture fund.
Uniseed makes targeted investments at the earliest stages of a venture`s formation and manages the development of research and ingenuity-based ventures to the point where they can secure substantial further investment from the investment community. It represents an important step in forging a link between academia and business that focuses on the commercialisation of innovative ideas and inventions for global consumption.