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Newark Venture Partners to Launch $50M Investment Fund, Accelerator for City’s Startups

July 30, 2015

Located just a 20-minutes from New York City, Newark has long existed in the shadow of its much larger neighbor. Despite this, Newark’s downtown received an important boost to its innovation ecosystem this week with the announcement of Newark Venture Partners, a venture capital fund and accelerator. Seeded with funding from Audible.com and Prudential Financial and backed by city and state officials, Newark Venture Partners announced its intention to raise $50 million to form an investment fund dedicated to supporting local tech startups.

In addition to the fund, Newark Venture Partners is also building out a collaborative, state-of-the-art, 25,000-square-foot accelerator across the street from Newark’s Broad Street train station, co-located alongside Audible’s headquarters and the Rutgers University Business School, who will both help provide resources to the young companies.  Audible, Prudential Financial, and the Military Park Partnership will also be funding the Firebolt Wi-Fi system, stretching two miles throughout downtown Newark, which will provide funded startups and other Newarkers with free-access to high-speed Internet service. Community recreation centers and multiple Newark Housing Authority locations will also be provided access with the no-cost, high-speed internet.  To assess its contributions to Newark’s social and economic improvements, Newark Venture Partners will regularly publish metrics such as job growth, taxable revenue growth, increased residential in-migration, foot traffic, and growth of vibrant street level amenities. 

Read more about Newark Venture Partners at: http://www.newarkventurepartners.com/

New Jerseyventure capital, accelerators