The new $ 5 million deep technology fund is intended to lure the founders of universities

Spend time at university and you will inevitably come across someone who has a plan to save the world or at least make some small part of it better. This may be just the optimism of youth, but sometimes they are actually something.

Critical Venture Partners relies that young founders, fresh from universities, can solve some of the other problems in the world, including climate change, healthcare and economic opportunities. The company is founded by a trio by recent graduates of the University of Pennsylvania.

“We are the type of founder in which we would invest-be young people, invest in other young people,” Sam Strickberger, co-founder and general partner of Critical Venture Partners, in front of TechCrunch.

Strickberger and his co -founders Sungkon son and Max Strickberger, his brother, raised an introductory fund of $ 5 million to court the founders of their portfolio, ranging between $ 50,000 and $ 250,000. A quarter of the fund is reserved for subsequent investment. Restricted partners include Aarti Chandna, a partner at Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund; Seth Goldman and chairman of the beyond meat; and Andrew Kaplan, a partner at Bain Capital.

To attract fresh talents, the Critical Venture Partners works with a Yope-Sub-Society known as founder.org, launched by Michael Baum, co-founder and CEO of SPLUK-to launch a $ 100,000 launch race.

So far, the company has invested in three start -ups: Common galaxytransformed₂ in methane; Mobius Industries, which restores waste metals; and Stratagen Bio, which adds quantitative data to MRI scan.

“We are really inspired by the history of young founders, building really big category companies,” Strikberger said.

In this sense, Critical Venture Partners is in good company: Risk capital valorizes young founders to such an extent that it borders a mania. However, it feels intuitive that insoluble problems can require fresh thinking to solve. The optimism of the new company may be young to talk, but they are certainly in good company.