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LabStart Looks for Promising Technologies

August 20, 2009

LabStart, a joint undertaking between two venture capital firms, Verge Fund and ARCH Venture Partners, has been formed to help discover technologies that are diamonds in the rough at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Russ Hopper, LabStart’s entrepreneur in residence, envisions the joint venture’s efforts as producing the seed of a vibrant entrepreneurial culture in Los Alamos. Hopper stresses that LabStart helps researchers get their inventions into the marketplace. “I would love to see 10 or 20 startups come out of the Lab and provide employment for talented individuals in the area,” he said. To read the article in its entirety, please click the below link.

LabStart looks for diamonds in the rough (PDF)

History

LabStart is a joint venture between Verge Fund of Albuquerque and ARCH Venture Partners of Chicago and Austin. In the Spring of 2008, Los Alamos National Security (LANS), the management company of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, created the Los Alamos Venture Acceleration (LAVA) initiative to speed up the process of identifying and spinning out new start up opportunities from within the LANL, the oldest and largest national laboratory facility. In response to LANS’ solicitation for a private-sector management entity to run implement the LAVA initiative, Verge and Arch submitted a joint proposal, defining the creation of LabStart.