New York-based private tech university the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) has made an undisclosed “seven-figure” investment in Cosimo Ventures, a tokenized venture fund operator that focuses on blockchain and tech companies.
In a press release shared with Cryptonews.com, the fund claimed that the move marks the first time an American university has invested in a tokenized venture capital fund – and potentially paves the way more of the country’s higher education institutions to bolster their ties with the crypto and blockchain industry.
Cosimo Ventures has offices in Boston and Dublin, and said that RIT has decided to inject its capital into Cosimo X, its newly-established blockchain-focused tokenized fund.
According to the company, investors invest in the fund by purchasing COSIMO tokens, which are digitized securities that represent an indirect economic interest in COSIMO X.
“The COSIMO tokens potentially offer holders greater liquidity than traditional venture capital fund partnership interests and solve a number of the challenges that concern venture capitalists,” the fund said, adding that their tokens may be tradeable and “allow control over capital deployment without being subject to capital calls and unexpected commitments.”
However, the fund does not guarantee that a secondary trading market will ever develop for COSIMO tokens or that they will ever be listed on any exchange or trading platform.
Cosimo X said that some of the businesses in its portfolio include the likes of Gecko, provider of a blockchain regtech solution for compliance, blockchain business Oneiro, medical device cybersecurity company NovaLeah and Locatible, a provider of location tracking based solutions.
Cosimo X’s website is powered by technology provided by the security token platform Securitize, a strategic partner of the fund.
RIT was established in 1829 and has enrolled some 19,000 students in about 200 programs. The 2020 edition of the US News & World Report’s Best Colleges Ranking ranks RIT as the 104th in its list of universities in the United States.
Universities elsewhere in the world are also strengthening their ties to the blockchain and crypto sector – particularly in Japan, where the University of Aizu is teaming up with Soramitsu, a Japanese company now working with the Cambodian nation bank on a digital fiat issuance. The parties are set to debut a token for use at the university and the surrounding area.
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