USC Marshall Venture Fund

The USC Marshall Venture Fund is a student-run, early-stage evergreen venture fund created by the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the USC Marshall School of Business. Launched in November 2018 and based in Los Angeles, the Fund invests in and takes equity in ventures founded or led by USC students, alumni, faculty and staff, helping to bridge the funding gap for early-stage USC-affiliated companies. It typically participates in a company's first institutional round, writing checks of roughly $25,000 to $50,000 and looking for ventures that already have a product and ideally some early market traction, with a goal of making at least two investments per year, generally as a co-investor. Beyond capital, the Fund serves an educational mission: MBA and undergraduate students source, evaluate and conduct due diligence on prospective deals under the guidance of a 17-person investment committee of experienced venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and operators, learning first-hand how to evaluate, make and manage venture investments. The initiative also engages USC alumni, advisors and domain experts to mentor founders and to strengthen the broader USC and Southern California entrepreneurial ecosystem, while returns from successful exits are recycled back into the Fund. Disclosed portfolio companies include Flaus, Kenko, Engage and ChainOpera AI. By combining real institutional capital with a hands-on educational mission, the USC Marshall Venture Fund backs USC-affiliated founders at their first institutional round while training the next generation of investors.