Tuesday, March 26, 2013

USC Viterbi Launches Startup Accelerator

Add another startup accelerator to the growing list of Southern California startup accelerators: this time, from the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering. USC revealed this morning that it has created a new, startup accelerator on campus, the Viterbi Startup Garage, which will help students and alumni start technology companies in Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles Times, the new accelerator is being backed by the United Talent Agency and Kleiner, Perkins Caufield & Byers, the notable Silicon Valley venture capital firm. The startup accelerator is behind headed by Ashish Soni.

Southern California--and Los Angeles, in particular--appears to become the hub of startup accelerators lately. Last a pilot middle school at the L.A. Unified School District focused on incubating high tech businesses said it was looking to launch in the 2013-14 school year; Loyola Marymount, another educaitonal institutional here in Los Angeles, opend up its own startup incubator, and last month, Turner Broadcasting/Warner launched a media focused accelerator.

Those are on top of the more established incubation and acceleration efforts here, such as Launchpad LA, MuckerLab, Amplify LA, StartEngine, Science, EvoNexus, Qualcomm Labs, Idealab, and many others.

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