UC Davis Venture Catalyst Expands DRIVE Network
UC Davis’ Venture Catalyst facilitates the commercialization of university research and technology by enabling the development of new ventures, ensuring that innovations reach the marketplace for societal impact. Among the many resources that Venture Catalyst offers to campus innovators is the Distributed Research Incubation & Venture Engine (DRIVE™) Network, which provides access to a network of affordable, thematically oriented startup incubators to help new companies emerge and take root in the region.
Venture Catalyst announced the addition of Research to Business Catalyst (R2B Catalyst) as the newest, and first international incubator within the DRIVE Network. Located in Santiago, Chile, R2B Catalyst officially opened in October 2016 as part of the UC Davis-Chile Life Sciences Innovation Center, a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of California. At over 3,000 square feet, the incubator includes three laboratories with cutting-edge technology for plant biology, biochemistry, molecular biology and microbiology.
“We are very happy to inaugurate this laboratory, the first of its kind in Santiago,” said Ignacio Brescia, CEO of R2B Catalyst. “The support we received from UC Davis and others to open this incubator has been instrumental and will allow us to leverage the talent of our young scientists in Chile and expose them to a global platform.”
In addition to the physical lab space, R2B Catalyst offers entrepreneurs services inspired by, and based on, the model pioneered by Venture Catalyst at UC Davis. These services include business model assessment, guidance on raising public and private capital, legal services and strategies for intellectual property and mentoring from business professionals.
Dushyant Pathak, executive director of Venture Catalyst and associate vice chancellor of Research at UC Davis said, “R2B Catalyst represents an exciting new platform for us to extend ongoing collaborations between California-based researchers at UC Davis and their partners in Chile, through facilitating the transformation of cutting-edge research into new ventures that can benefit from our global economy.” Pathak, who is also a member of the board of directors of UC Davis-Chile Life Sciences Innovation Center added, “Through this expansion of Venture Catalyst, startups seeded within R2B Catalyst will have the ability to set up affiliated operations in Davis-based incubators of the UC Davis DRIVE Network.”
R2B Catalyst joins the UC Davis-HM.CLAUSE Life Science Innovation Center, Area 52, HackerLab and UC Davis MedCatalyst as members of the UC Davis DRIVE Network of startup incubators.
About the UC Davis-Chile Life Sciences Innovation Center
The UC Davis-Chile Life Sciences Innovation Center in Santiago, Chile, referred to as UC Davis Chile, opened in April 2015.
The center’s long-term goal is to support research, development and economic competitiveness in Chile and California with an initial focus on the agricultural industry, including plant breeding, postharvest and climate-change technologies.
The center is funded through a grant from the Corporación de Fomento de la Producción de Chile, or CORFO, the country’s economic development agency, and industry and university partner cost-sharing. The center is led by founding Executive Director Alan B. Bennett, distinguished professor of plant sciences at UC Davis.
“The aim of UC Davis Chile is to make a positive impact on the Chilean innovation ecosystem by leveraging the research strengths of UC Davis,” said Bennett. “We are world leaders in agriculture, veterinary medicine, forest and food sciences, so it seemed natural to partner on the creation of R2B Catalyst to develop a platform for technology transfer adapted for the Chilean ecosystem – inspired by the successful model of entrepreneurial support being implemented by UC Davis’ Venture Catalyst.”
For more information, contact: [email protected]