Spend time at a university and inevitably you will meet someone who has a plan to save the world or at least make a small part of it better. It may just be the optimism of the youth, but sometimes they are actually something.
Critical business partners bet that new founders moving away from universities can solve some of the most unpleasant problems in the world, including climate change, health care and economic opportunity. The company was founded by a trio of recent graduates from the University of Pennsylvania.
“We are the type of founder to invest-are young, investing in other young people,” said Sam Strickberger, co-founder and associate of Critical Venture Partners, at TechCrunch.
Strickberger and co -founders of Seungkwon Son and Max Strickberger, his brother, set a $ 5 million inaugural fund to their founders in their portfolio with control sizes ranging between $ 50,000 and $ 250,000. One quarter of the fund is intended for surveillance investment. The limited partners include Aarti Chandna, a partner at Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund. Seth Goldman and Board of Directors Beyond Meat. And Andrew Kaplan, a partner at Bain Capital.
To attract fresh talent, Critical Venture Partners collaborates with Yope-a accelerator known as a founder.org launched by Michael Baum, co-founder and chief executive of SPLUNK-to launch a $ 100,000 start competition.
So far, the company has invested in three newly established companies: General Galactic, which is transformed CO2 in methane; mobius industries, which recover the metals from waste. and Stratagen Bio, which adds quantitative data to magnetic resonance imaging.
“We are truly inspired by the history of young founders who are truly building large category designation companies,” Strickberger said.
In this sense, critical business partners are in a good company: Business capital utilizes the new founders to such an extent that it is bordered by obsession. Still, it feels intuitive that disobedient problems may require new thinking to solve. The optimism in the new business may be for youth to talk, but it is definitely a good company.