Your Window Into the Innovation Economy

Below are case studies on two notable healthtech investments from Alumni Ventures’ portfolio. American Gene Technologies is developing and commercializing genetic medicines targeting major diseases, while SonderMind is a behavioral health network addressing the three-sided marketplace between consumers, therapists, and enterprise partners. Both companies demonstrate our ability to identify and secure investments in high-potential healthtech opportunities, which we’ll aim to do for this year’s Healthtech Fund. Investors in the fund will own a diversified portfolio of ~20-30 companies developing impactful healthtech and biotech solutions to address addiction, obesity, Alzheimer’s, cancer, genomics, longevity, and more.

Car and automobile manufacturing is a booming industry, with the market at $104 billion in the U.S. alone. Add in the growing popularity and demand for fuel-friendly vehicles, and the industry potential grows exponentially. However, while economically beneficial, companies now have the additional challenge of manufacturing these innovations without disrupting current business operations.

Laura Bordewieck Rippy, Managing Partner of Green D Ventures (Alumni Ventures fund for the Dartmouth community) shares her venture journey, including her first job, lessons learned, exciting investments, and more.

Larry Warnock, Managing Partner of Ring Ventures (Alumni Ventures fund for the Texas A&M community) shares his venture journey, including his first job, lessons learned, exciting investments, and more.

Justin Strausbaugh, Managing Partner of Lakeshore Ventures (Alumni Ventures fund for the UChicago community) shares his venture journey, including his first job, lessons learned, exciting investments, and more.

Brian Keil, Managing Partner of Chestnut Street Ventures (Alumni Ventures’ fund for the Penn community) shares his venture journey, including his first job, lessons learned, exciting investments, and more.

Today’s manufacturers face numerous challenges, including skilled worker shortages, high production costs, and compliance concerns. Fortunately, artificial intelligence (AI) technology can address many of these concerns. According to a McKinsey study, by 2030, AI is expected to create $13 trillion of realized value for the world’s economy. Within manufacturing specifically, companies have added AI solutions to streamline their core production processes.

In a recent analysis by Axios, Alumni Ventures (AV) ranked third in the number of investments made in U.S.-based climate tech companies, behind only Breakthrough Energy Ventures and SOSV.

Like many of our peers in the venture community, we believe we’re entering into a new part of the venture cycle. We’ve already seen a dramatic reset of public market valuations — with impacts also affecting the private markets.

Nearly all of our belongings hold value, from homes to vehicles, furniture to collectibles, etc. Factors like age, wear and tear, upgrades, and demand can impact the valuation of these objects, and their physical traits are helpful in determining their worth. On the other hand, it’s much more complex to put a price on the value of an intangible asset, such as the current and potential worth of a young, fast-growing startup.

One of Alumni Ventures’ most crucial assets is our broad network of venture capital partners. We are strictly a co-investor, following other established lead investors into rounds. That means we don’t negotiate terms or take Board seats, giving us more time to source promising opportunities. It also affords us the latitude to build diverse portfolios while investing alongside VCs with significant domain experience.