Chicago’s wealthy back new fund for U of C tech startups
A Silicon Valley venture capital firm has lured investment from billionaires including Don Wilson, Michael Polsky and Ashley Duchossois Joyce to fund University of Chicago technology startups.
MFV Partners, a Bay Area venture capital firm with ties to Chicago, is starting a $25 million fund dedicated to early-stage companies originating from the university. The fund, which will target startups in areas such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence, plans to back about 40 firms over the next three years.
The move is an attempt to inject capital into the UChicago ecosystem, so professors, students and alumni don’t have to relocate to the coasts to access funds, said MFV Managing Partner Karthee Madasamy, who studied at the university’s business school.
It also comes at a time when the Trump administration is cutting federal funds and Gov. JB Pritzker is trying to turn Illinois into a hub for new technologies and clean energy.
“There’s a lot of great research happening in the university, and many of the founders are stuck,” Madasamy said. “How do we create these companies? How do we unlock this financing? Some of them either give up or actually they shift to the Bay Area, which is not ideal either.”
The Harper Court Ventures Fund I is backed by Chicago billionaires such as Wilson, founder of trading firm DRW Holdings; Polsky, Invenergy’s chief executive officer; and Duchossois Joyce, chairman of Duchossois Capital Management, whose family is known for its ties to the Churchill Downs racetrack. It also counts the UChicago Endowment, Lazard Chairman Ken Jacobs and Pimco CEO Emmanuel Roman as investors.
High interest rates and a changing federal funding landscape have created a greater need for startup capital, said Samir Mayekar, managing director of the Polsky Center at the university’s Booth School of Business and former deputy mayor for economic development under the administration of former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
“This fund in itself and $25 million isn’t going to solve those macro issues, but the need for early-stage capital has never been greater,” he said.
MFV Partners operates the fund independently but has an exclusive cooperation agreement with the university — a model that’s similar to efforts by other schools such as the University of California, Berkeley; California Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan.
The fund already has made its first three investments: Flow Medical, started by UChicago Medical Center physicians; SimCare AI, a clinical skills training company started by former UChicago students; and Beacon, an illness prevention technology startup founded by a Booth graduate.
“You think about what Amazon or Microsoft did to the Seattle ecosystem,” Mayekar said. “What we’re lacking here in the Chicago market is that iconic, large, successful company that is disruptive and creates a generation of wealth for future entrepreneurs.”