The University of California is investing in big data and real-time technology with the recent hire of Vivek Ranadivé, majority owner of the Sacramento Kings.
The Silicon Valley entrepreneur will work at the head of a team and fund to invest in innovation opportunities that originate from the university campuses. UC’s Office of the Chief Investment Officer (UC Investments) will be an anchor investor, committing $250 million to the project.
The UC Board of Regents approved the idea of investing in innovation more than a year ago, in September 2014. The fund will invest in a wide range of disciplines, including life sciences, technology, energy, agriculture and materials. The project will use no tuition or state funding.
In a press release Tuesday from the UC system, UC President Janet Napolitano said, “This venture will support the research and entrepreneurship of UC faculty and student researchers whose discoveries can benefit people throughout California, the nation and the world. Vivek is a leader who can make that happen. His involvement will enable us to achieve our objective of capitalizing on UC innovation.”
The university system reports it is ripe and ready for investment in innovations, as the campuses’ researchers produce an average of five inventions per day and more than 800 companies with UC patents have been founded since the 1980s.
Ranadivé previously founded both Teknekron Software Solutions, which helped to digitize trading on Wall Street, and TIBCO, which powers communications between entities, manufacturers, governments and organizations internationally. He is also the majority owner of the Sacramento Kings NBA franchise and author of three bestselling books on research and technology.
