Massey Ventures Limited has been awarded close to one million dollars to kick-start the development of commercial projects and companies.
Massey Ventures will receive $927,692 over three years from the government’s PreSeed Accelerator Fund. Massey Ventures will match the funding and allocate more than $1.8 million to Massey staff or student projects that have the potential to attract investor interest in research from the technology fields, such as veterinary technology, food technology, fundamental science and engineering.
Chief executive of Massey Ventures Limited Mark Cleaver will lead the management of PreSeed funding.
“The fund will be allocated to projects and technologies that have the potential for commercialisation and acts as a helping hand until a start-up company is established or a license deal is negotiated. Over the past three years the University has grown its commercialisation activity and this funding will encourage higher levels of activity and in time, greater benefits,” he says.
Massey will fund a minimum of 21 projects from initiation to commercialisation. PreSeed funded projects require 50 per cent co-funding from other sources, which will be drawn from Massey Ventures’ reserves and from industry partners.
Stage one projects will receive up to $30,000 for proof-of-concept development, market validation, intellectual property novelty and patentability searches. Stage two projects will receive between $30,000 and $60,000 for technology development, including prototyping and data collection, market engagement, and intellectual property protection, and strategy advice. Stage three projects will receive over $60,000 for technology refinement, intellectual property protection and deal negotiation.
Massey University has previously received $634,250 from the fund between 2010 and 2015. These funds supported commercialisation of 13 projects, with six projects resulting in intellectual property licenses to external parties, including four going to spin-out companies.
The four spin-out companies remain based in New Zealand and have raised a total of $4.2m from private investors and employ 16 highly trained staff.
Lifeonics Smart Measuring Optical Device.Spin-out comapnies
The four spin-out companies remain based in New Zealand and have raised a total of $4.2m from private investors and employ 16 highly trained staff.
One of the spin-out companies is Lifeonics limited, who works internationally developing smart sensors to monitor analytical challenges, such as the development of the Smart Measuring Optical Device (SMOD). The device takes away the need for researchers to spend long hours of manual monitoring and sampling of cultures and allows real time monitoring of the progress of a culture’s growth, monitoring of anaerobic cultures and early culture failure diagnosis.
Staff and students who have an idea that may have commercial potential may be eligible to receive the PreSeed Accelerator Funding. A total of $250,000 per project is available. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more details.
The Pre-Seed Accelerator fund is managed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.