Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the commercialisation and corporate venturing unit for academic medical centre Cleveland Clinic, received its largest ever gift last week, from James C. Justice II, a businessman with a reported $1.1bn in assets.
Justice and his wife Cathy contributed $10m of an overall $11m donation, intended to finance economic development in Ohio, the rest coming from Thomas Graham, chairman of Cleveland Clinic Innovations.
The donation will establish a chair in medical innovation, and will additionally be used to provide seed investment in companies developing innovative products, as well as patent applications, speakers and work space.
Since it was founded in 2000, Cleveland Clinic Innovations has reportedly spun off 35 companies, which have raised a total of nearly $550m in equity financing.