UT invests in student startups

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The University of Texas is putting some real investment into startups developed by its students.

A special fund helps put innovative ideas into action by giving the entrepreneurs some financial backing, and one student's groundbreaking research, has people talking.

Whether it's events like SXSW, or a UT football game, battling for cell signals is frustrating and inconvenience.

But now, there’s a solution, thanks to a 26-year-old PhD student at UT.

"I believe that it took somebody young to be steeped into the industry for a long time to really come up with a creative novel solution and fundamental re-think of how the problem was solved," said M87 CEO David Hampton.

The startup now is commercially known as M87.

The student's idea was made possible with the help of a professor, developing software technology that enables cell phones to work better in crowded areas.

The university helped get the company going by investing $500,000 in it.

"There's a program at the University of Texas where if you have interesting technology applications, they will help you patent the technology to get you started. That's how this company started at UT," Hampton said.

That special program, called the UT Horizon Fund, was approved by the board of regents in August 2011.

Now more than a year later, they've made several investments.

"We are very hopeful the existence of the fund making investments to start-up companies, will lead to things like internships and jobs for students out of UT-Austin," said Bryan Allinson of UT Technology Commercialization.

For the university, giving life to startups like M87 is an important step in being among the nation's top institutions.

In the UT system, there are 150 startup companies across all 15 institutions. Out of those 150, The UT Horizon fund has invested in seven.

The UT Board of Regents decided to invest $10 million into the fund last year.

The money comes from the university's ‘Available University Fund’, which is the return UT makes on its main fund that invests oil and gas revenues.

The Board of Regents says the fund is helping recruit and retain the best faculty and graduate students.