Victorian state government-backed fund manager Breakthrough Victoria is joining with the University of Melbourne to set up a $15 million fund to fast-track commercialisation of technology.
Breakthrough Victoria and the University of Melbourne will each contribute $7.5 million to the Genesis Fund which will help technology start-ups overcome early hurdles such as strategic hiring, market research, developing minimum viable products, securing intellectual property and developing viable business models.
Breakthrough Victoria was established last year to manage an unprecedented $2 billion, allocated by the Labor state government over ten years. The fund has the objective of developing a pipeline which will generate more than 15,000 new jobs through technology commercialisation.
Breakthrough Victoria is intended to help companies commercialise ideas in areas such as health and life sciences, agri-food, digital technologies, advanced manufacturing and clean technologies.
The Genesis fund will encourage researchers and academics to identify commercialisation opportunities during early research and develop product prototypes and proof-of-concept trials. The fund will invest up to $500,000 in individual start-ups to help progress ideas through to attracting seed-stage investment.
The Global Innovation Index ranks Australia 15th out of 132 global economies in terms of research but only 33rd on commercialisation. It is hoped that the Genesis fund will help address this imbalance.
Breakthrough Victoria chair, former Victorian premier John Brumby, said: “The Genesis Fund reinforces Breakthrough Victoria’s strategy to support investment so that research with strong commercial potential does not falter during the early stages.”
Melbourne University vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell said: “The fund will play a critical role in supporting researchers to take more risks, to be creative in their thinking and accelerate the possibilities to take research discoveries from an idea to market.”
Image: The Genesis Fund will encourage academics to take commercialisation risks.