Alliance for Southern California Innovation Launches to Further Develop Southern California Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Unprecedented collaboration of leading universities, research institutes, and business leaders to unlock the region's full potential as a start-up hub
LOS ANGELES, June 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Serial tech entrepreneur and former California Insurance Commissioner, Steve Poizner, working with a group of prominent tech, university, and research institute leaders, today announced the formation of the Alliance for Southern California Innovation (Alliance), a nonprofit established to nurture and accelerate the growth of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Southern California.
"Southern California has the right building blocks to become the next leading technology and innovation hub in the United States," said Steve Poizner, Founder of the Alliance. "Through a collaborative effort, the region has the potential to bring a trillion-dollar economic impact to the state and country."
As the challenges to starting and growing new companies in Silicon Valley continue to mount, the Southern California region, with its extensive wealth of engineering talent, world-class universities and ample space, is well positioned to become America's next hub for technology and life science startups. The Alliance will develop initiatives that encourage tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and top talent to locate to and stay in Southern California, complementing and extending the success of Silicon Valley and the Bay Area.
"Across machine learning, life sciences, cloud services, urban development and more, we're in the midst of an exciting era of technological advancement that will create new businesses, jobs and opportunities. Southern California has a thriving startup culture and group of entrepreneurs, as well as terrific researchers and institutions. It's perfectly placed to become a global hub," said Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Alphabet Inc., and Alliance Advisory Committee member. "I'm excited that the Alliance, working with Universities and experts across the region, will work to boost research and to connect local entrepreneurs with the capital and expertise they need to thrive."
The Alliance has entered into a collaboration agreement with Bill Maris, Founder and former CEO of Google Ventures, who just launched Section 32, a new venture fund located in Southern California. The Alliance will provide referrals of exciting startup opportunities, and expects to form similar collaborations with other top venture capitalists committed to strengthening their presence in Southern California.
"Southern California is not only my home, but a region with a long history of creating and advancing new industries. Innovation isn't confined to any one part of our state, and Southern California is ripe with top tier investment opportunities in various sectors. Section 32 is proud to be the first venture fund to partner with the Alliance," said Bill Maris.
The Board of Directors of the Alliance includes senior leaders from universities and a research consortium, including the University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Santa Barbara; Caltech; University of California, Riverside; University of California, San Diego; University of Southern California; University of California, Irvine; Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine; as well as distinguished community leaders from Southern California.
The Alliance has engaged on a pro bono basis the Boston Consulting Group, one of the world's leading management consulting firms, to conduct a comprehensive study of Southern California's innovation economy and to develop an action plan for making Southern California the next global tech center. BCG's findings are expected to be announced by Fall 2017.
For more information, please visit www.AllianceSoCal.org.
Media Contact:
Michelle Horn
Edelman
(323) 761-6541
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SOURCE Alliance for Southern California Innovation
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