Today marks a pivotal date in Newark’s history. Prudential Financial, Audible.com, and congressional and local leaders announced Newark Venture Partners, a $50M early-stage tech venture fund and 25,000 square-foot accelerator to create and grow early-stage tech companies in Newark.
The City also unveiled Firebolt Newark Wi-Fi, the world’s fastest large-scale, contiguous public outdoor Wi-Fi network capable of over 400 megabits per second download speeds.
Newark Venture Partners will manage an early-stage investment fund that will provide capital as well as sophisticated company-building services and residence in the 25,000 square foot state-of-the-art work space featuring ultra-high-speed bandwidth to the desktop. The accelerator’s new work space is now under construction in One Washington Park in Newark, the home of Audible.com and Rutgers Business School, which will be providing rent-free access to the technology facility.
Audible’s executives and advanced technologists will play a key role in providing mentoring to resident portfolio companies. “Audible moved to Newark in late 2007 to help accelerate the comeback of a great American city,” said Don Katz, also the founder of Newark Venture Partners. “As the fastest-growing private employer in Newark, we have added hundreds of employees who are thriving in a city at a historic tipping point. Along with the Newark Venture Partners leadership team, we look forward to mentoring
fellow entrepreneurs and their employees.”
“From Thomas Edison’s work to the invention of the transistor, New Jersey has a proud history of technological innovation,” said Senator Booker. “Now, Newark is poised to take the next big step forward. Giving start-ups here access to ultra-high bandwidth Internet will attract more entrepreneurship to our community and bring the opportunities of an increasingly interconnected global economy even closer to people. That means the creation of jobs and a stronger city and state.”
The first fund of its kind in the New York metropolitan area, Newark Venture Partners is part of a national “social impact investing” trend characterized by a “double bottom line” investment thesis that will include regularly published metrics on the fund’s contribution to social and economic improvement such as job growth, taxable revenue growth, increased residential in-migration, foot traffic and the growth of vibrant street level amenities. “We can accelerate the turnaround of economically challenged American cities by connecting them to technology-driven innovation and economic growth,” said Newark native, Newark Venture Partners advisor and Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, Dr. Richard Florida, the leading academic proponent of the “creative economy” that brings together engineers, artists and other knowledge workers to create positive urban change. “With this announcement,” Dr. Florida continued, “Newark is poised to become a paradigm of social impact venture investment wealth creation and social transformation upside for years to come.”
