ANN ARBOR ? New corporate and institutional investors have pumped $14 million into Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, capping its second fund at $79 million. The money comes from Whirlpool Corp., MSU Foundation and Roush Industries.
Renaissance Venture was launched in 2008 by the Detroit Renaissance, the predecessor of Business Leaders for Michigan. The first fund raised $45 million and had a first close of $60 million on the second fund in 2012. It later raised $5 million more.
Both funds of funds invest in other venture capital funds rather than make direct investments in companies.
Other investors in Renaissance’s two funds include DTE Energy Co., Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Ford Motor Co., the Dow Foundation, Meijer Inc., Wolverine World Wide Inc., the Kellogg Foundation, the Michigan Employees’ Retirement System and CMS Energy Corp.
Chris Rizik, the fund?s president, told Crain?s Detroit about half the second fund has been committed. The latest, in a deal just concluded, was an investment of $5 million in Boston-based Flagship Ventures.
In December, it was announced that Renaissance Venture, Detroit Venture Partners and Detroit-based Fontinalis Partners will provide investment capital for a new Techstars program coming to Detroit later this year.
The program is called Techstars Mobility, Driven by Detroit and is the latest of a series of tech-incubation programs put on nationally by Boulder, Colo.-based Techstars, an organization that provides seed money and mentoring for promising tech startups.
Applications will be accepted for the program through March 15 at techstars.com/program/locations/mobility, with 10 companies starting an entrepreneurial boot camp early in the summer and finishing on Sept. 10.
