Vantage Ventures, the new business incubator announced Friday and backed by West Virginia University’s John Chambers College of Business and Economics, will host more than 15 new companies at its home in University Place.
Vantage Ventures is a “concentrated effort to launch high impact, scalable businesses that tackle complex challenges,” the university said in a release.
Sarah Biller, a founder of FinTech Sandbox, a Boston nonprofit that offers data and development tools to entrepreneurs, was recruited by WVU to serve as executive director of Vantage Ventures. Her salary will be paid by WVU alumnus and venture capitalist John Chambers, the former executive chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems and Huntington National Bank.
“We look at this as an opportunity to access untapped intellectual capital and resources to solve large problems and stand-up businesses that attract venture investment and are profitable,” Biller said in a statement.
The incubator will be located in 8,000 square feet of space in University Place in an area dubbed Vantage Point. WVU said the space will be used for business building and classroom space for students working with fledgling businesses.
The genesis of Vantage Ventures and its incubator space goes back to the spring when WVU leaders and businessmen met with John Chambers, the man for whom the business school is named, to discuss the business school.
During those conversations, the idea of transforming West Virginia as a place where new, start-up businesses and entrepreneurship could thrive was discussed. The end result was Vantage Ventures.
WVU said Vantage Ventures will initially focus on four market sectors: Health, security, energy and sensory. Companies at the incubator will be able to use Vantage Ventures’ network of financial resources, mentors and executives.
“West Virginia is a place with tremendous resources and opportunities, but we have to think differently about job creation to move into the future,” said Javier Reyes, dean of the John Chambers College of Business and Economics. “Vantage Ventures is the way to provide the infrastructure and resources needed to fuel startups and support the entrepreneurs with bold ideas that can transform our economy.”
University Place is in the Sunnyside area of Morgantown.
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