Coming in 2020

The TTU Hub Fuel Fund is a partnership initiative of the nine organizations listed above who believe supporting opportunities to fund innovative startups is essential for the strength and prosperity of our local economy. In 2020, the Innovation Hub along with the partners will open the call to market the opportunity for investors to invest in the Fund. Companies, organizations, and individual investors interested in supporting the innovation eco-system by 1) helping us to promote the effort or 2) to invest in the Hub Fuel Fund should fill out the interest form below. Companies seeking funding please familiarize yourself with the FAQs, call for applications is rolling until further notice.

The Hub Fuel Fund invests in seed-stage companies in high-opportunity technology markets (with a focus on agriculture) that can attract follow-on capital, create high growth companies primarily in West Texas, and generate strong financial returns. Hub Fuel Fund plans to invest in 25-35 Ag-Tech startups, investments ranging from $100k-$250k.

The following is a list of agriculture investment areas:

big data analytics, biotechnology, emerging contaminants and nano-materials, food, forecasting, imaging, logistics, mapping, natural resource sustainability, plant and animal breeding, packaging, recycling, satellite and atmospheric predictability, sensor and chip IoT, software, smart electronics, supply chain technologies, water and environmental technology, wind engineering and mitigation

Key things considered when evaluating investment opportunities:

Experienced leadership/teams that are passionate, curious, coachable, collaborative, and motivated.

Product-market fit and early revenue traction

Sustainable competitive advantages from patents, trade secrets, differentiated business models, etc.

Large addressable markets (ideally $100M+) that are experiencing rapid growth.

Capital efficient business models that require limited capital to commercialize solutions and achieve an exit and return on investment.

Deep understanding and a defendable clear path to exit

Stage:

The Hub Fuel Fund invests in startups with a product that has a defined customer segment entry point with scalability and a proven business model strategy through sales traction.

Geography:

West Texas is an area consisting of 71 out of 254 counties in the state of Texas, 1.53M in population spanning 67,000+ square miles. In an effort to support West Texas innovators and entrepreneurs while attracting deal flow to West Texas the primary focus is to fund local startups. The investment committee will conduct due diligence on each application that includes prioritization of those startups headquartered in West Texas.

- ~50% of capital will go to local (West Texas) Ag-Tech companies

- ~50% of capital will go to non-local Ag-Tech companies sourced through Seraph Group's national angel fund's network