$50M venture fund and accelerator launches in Newark

Big day for Newark and the state’s startup community when a $50 million venture fund was launched July 20 at Audible.com’s headquarters in the Brick City.

The kickoff event for Newark Venture Partners drew a who’s who of Newark, plus state leaders like U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and former Gov. Tom Kean. Prominent backers of the fund include Audible.com and its CEO Don Katz, and Prudential Financial. The fund’s mission is to support startups and foster entrepreneurship in the area of tech, while focusing on social impact. The plan includes an accelerator at 1 Washington Park, home to Audible.com and Rutgers University School of Business. Tom Wisniewski, director of the board of New York Angels, will be managing director of NVP and its sister entity Newark Venture Accelerator. Other contributors to the fund, according to the Bergen Record, are Amazon and Marc Berson of Fidelco Realty Group.

Here are links to the media coverage, along with some of our favorite lines from each story:

Story from Mashable: “From Mark Zuckerberg funding its schools to a new startup incubator, Newark has become stylish in Silicon Valley, its renewal the favorite new cause for tech-savvy millionaires.”

Wall Street Journal story: “Newark Venture Accelerator will accept 10 to 50 startups a year. They will work out of a rent-free office space from Rutgers University Business School, receive investments of between $50,000 and $100,000, and mentoring from Audible and other corporate executives.”

NJBIZ story: “The venture fund is largely the brainchild of Audible CEO Donald Katz, whose audiobook company has called Newark home for some eight years and has long touted it as a home for the startup scene. He said the fund is the first of its kind in the New York metropolitan area, with a focus on fostering entrepreneurship while having a social impact on the surrounding area.”

NJ.com story: “U.S. Senator and former Newark Mayor Cory Booker said he and Katz first discussed efforts to fund tech-related business in Newark in 2007, around the time Audible moved its headquarters to the city. ‘It is amazing to see what happens from a seat of a conversation to the realization of that idea,’ he said. ‘If you create the right environment, the right ecosystem, in which ideas can turn into business industry, literally if you can create that space, you can transform the globe. You can transform all of humanity.’ ”

Story from Bergen Record: “Wisniewski said the accelerator will have 150 work spaces, or enough for about 50 companies. It will focus on early stage companies ranging from ‘pre-seed’ ventures – those starting out with no formal funding – to those that have already received their first round of venture capital. The accelerator will open in October, and is already accepting applications (at http://www.newarkventurepartners.com/), said Wiesniewski, who has a staff of four so far, and expects to hire four more people. ‘We’re open for business now,’ he said, adding that the fund is looking for “exciting, technology driven start-ups that have an interest in coming to Newark.”

Politico story: “The thing that really sets this venture apart from others, though, is the internet speeds that will be offered in the incubator, Wisniewski and Katz said. The idea is to take advantage of Newark’s place as a hub for some of the internet’s major backbone. Huge bundles of both dark and lit fiber optics snake through Newark, offering a chance to tap into some of its main arteries. ‘Newark, New Jersey, is the place where the internet comes up for air,’ Katz said.”

Story from CNN.com: “Newark Venture Partners will start with a $50 million fund. Wisniewski says the money will go to fund startups in a variety of stages — from pre-seed investments ($10,000) to seed stage ($250,000) to Series A ($1 million). They’re looking to fund the ‘Ubers of the world,’ according to Wisniewski. ‘It’s an overused analogy, but [we’re looking for startups] leveraging technology to solve interesting business problems — or creating a new consumer business.’ ”

PolitickerNJ.com story: “Booker bounded to the microphone in the same spot where he launched his successful 2013 campaign for U.S. Senate. ‘Newark is not new to this spirit,’ said the Senator. ‘Newark has always been this great city of innovation. Prudential started… in Newark, New Jersey. From Alva Edison to Seth Boyden, this city has been uniquely innovative.’ ”