Funding CWRU Alumni, Cultivating Venture Capital Leaders
The CWRU Alumni Venture Fund is a returns-oriented fund that invests philanthropic dollars in CWRU alumni, student or faculty startups alongside professional investors through a due diligence process led by current CWRU students.
Our Portfolio
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Fund Objectives
- Elevate student understanding of early-stage finance through experiential learning
- Drive strong financial returns
- Accelerate alumni engagement
- Enhance CWRU entrepreneurship visibility
- Support capital formation for CWRU alumni, student startups, and CWRU spinouts
Fund Structure
The CWRU AVF is a returns-oriented fund with strong CWRU connectivity through the Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship and the CWRU Chief Investment Officer. CWRU Alumni Fund Student Fellows lead the due diligence process with support from CWRU staff and alumni advisors. Our alumni advisors are a diverse group of experienced individuals who support our students in sourcing and evaluating potential investments.
Founder Profiles & Recent News
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April 06, 2026As he reaches the end of his educational journey, Reid Tileston reflects on his view from the mountaintop—and aims impossibly higher.“I want to be the world’s best teacher of Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA),” he said. “And I want to inspire my students to have the confidence to do hard… -
April 01, 2026Every time a software team releases an update, there’s a new risk of something else breaking. CWRU alum and entrepreneur Michael Rosenfield (CWR ’17), saw the problem firsthand at Google—and watched engineering teams manually check that nothing had gone wrong after every change.His San Francisco… -
March 23, 2026After studying the limits of blood cultures, Pavan Kota (CWR ’17) built a company designed to deliver results in hours instead of days
Support CWRU Entrepreneurs
The CWRU Alumni Venture Fund develops and accelerates the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem including students, faculty and alumni. Our students lead the due diligence and investment process. And that's a win-win for everyone.