Austin Technology Incubator University Development Portfolio Announces Partnership with RideScout Veteran Entrepreneurship Endowment
Austin, Texas (PRWEB) November 18, 2014 -- The Austin Technology Incubator announces that it will accept companies funded through the The RideScout Student Veteran Entrepreneurship Endowment into its University Development Portfolio (ATI-DEV). Through this new partnership, ATI-DEV will work with student veterans who are pursuing entrepreneurial ventures alongside their university education.
“Veterans are uniquely suited to meet the challenges posed by starting a new venture,” said Dr. Lydia McClure, director of the ATI Development Portfolio. “Their discipline, problem solving skills and ability to quickly adapt to complex situations give them an advantage over the average founder. We share RideScout’s commitment to supporting veteran entrepreneurs and are very excited to see what ideas UT student veterans bring to us.”
The first student veterans admitted under the partnership will receive support from a $70,000 endowment established by Joseph Kopser, CEO of RideScout. Kopser’s company, which was recently acquired by Daimler subsidiary moovel, was founded at The University of Texas at Austin and was itself a member of the ATI University Development Portfolio, before joining and graduating from the ATI Clean Energy Incubator in 2014.
ATI's University Development Portfolio has a long history of supporting student and faculty entrepreneurship within the University of Texas System. ATI-DEV facilitates the growth of businesses from the University of Texas including a broad set of companies that are often at a much earlier stage than traditional ATI clients. Typical ATI-DEV companies emerge from University labs based on University of Texas intellectual property, or are conceived by UT students and grown in classrooms and student programs. UT entrepreneurs and inventors join the ATI-DEV portfolio to strategize business ideas, monetize university technology and obtain funding for continued growth. When student companies often lose momentum in the summer, the ATI-DEV portfolio holds a program for student startups known as SEAL (Student Entrepreneurship Acceleration and Launch). This program offers the students intensive support from the ATI staff, industry-specific mentoring and a showcase at the end of the program to a Global community.
The Austin Technology Incubator makes this announcement in association with the Wednesday, November 12th establishment of the RideScout Student Veteran Entrepreneurship Endowment and the 2nd Annual Defense Energy Summit.
About the Austin Technology Incubator
The Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) is the startup incubator of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin. ATI works with seed and pre-seed-stage companies, helping prepare these businesses for commercial success, with a particular focus on helping startups compete in the capital markets. The Incubator has operated since 1989 with a dual mission: create jobs and wealth in Central Texas through technology entrepreneurship, and provide distinctive teaching and research opportunities to the UT-Austin community. Over the past 10 years, ATI companies have created more than 6,500 jobs, nearly $1 billion in economic impact, and over $20 million in tax revenues in Central Texas.
Ryan Field, The Austin Technology Incubator, http://ati.utexas.edu/, +1 (512) 305-0000, [email protected]
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