University of Hawaii Systems

XLR8UH, a public-private partnership between the University of Hawai’i (UH) and Sultan Ventures (SV), will expand its award-winning, nationally-ranked investment program statewide with the launch of the new XLR8 Seed Fund, a $10-20M targeted fund that fills the critical need for seed funding in Hawaii. While Hawaii’s Regional Innovation Cluster has several nationally-ranked accelerators and vast commercialization potential in groundbreaking research and technological development, its productivity is stunted by a major funding gap and there are no active seed funds in the state. Hawaii-based startups are left with little to no option other than to travel to the West Coast for funding – a capital and time-intensive process with limited results. The XLR8 Seed Fund will bridge this funding gap, investing in Hawaii companies primed for high growth and providing unprecedented access to capital for startups statewide, including the underserved/rural communities of the neighbor Hawaiian Islands. Within five years of its first investment, the XLR8 Seed Fund expects to have invested in 27 seed-stage startups who in turn will have raised over $76 million of additional funding, creating over 100 high tech jobs, and fueling increased productivity of Hawaii’s Regional Innovation Cluster.

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