Audiobook publisher Audible and financial services provider Prudential Financial have made anchor investments in newly launched venture capital fund Newark Venture Partners, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
Newark Venture Fund will focus on investing in startups based in Newark, New Jersey, and is aiming to raise $50m in capital. It has secured approximately half that sum so far, but will not be accepting public investment.
Newark Venture Accelerator, a sister programme to Newark Venture Fund, will meanwhile welcome startups from October 2015 in a bid to build up the city’s startup sector. It will accept anywhere between 10 and 50 companies each year.
The accelerator will be headquartered in a 25,000-square space at Rutgers University’s Business School. Participating startups will receive seed investments of between $50,000 and $100,000, as well as access to mentorship from Audible and other executives from other corporations.
New Jersey’s ecosystem has been suffering from a lack of investments compared to its neighbour New York. Investors invested a total of $419m in New Jersey-based startups in 2014, according to Dow Jones VentureSource, while New York’s businesses benefitted from about $4.8bn.
Newark was founded by Don Katz, chief executive and founder of Audible. Like Prudential, Audible is headquartered in Newark, having moved to the city in 2007, a few months before it was acquired by e-commerce company Amazon for $300m.
– Photo of Newark skyline courtesy of George Miquilena via Wikimedia Commons