NASA Launches VC Fund

SiliconBeat reports on the launch by NASA of a VC fund seeking to invest in young, privately held companies working in nanotechnology, robotics, intelligent systems and high-speed networking and communication:

"First, the CIA launched a venture capital arm in 1999. In-Q-Tel, as it was called, nestled its offices quietly amid Silicon Valley's top-tier venture firms on Sand Hill Road, and has started making money, as we reported here. Impressed with the results, the Army started a fund, and other branches started considering similar efforts.

So it's no surprise that NASA has jumped in the game. More details about the fund, which will begin to invest
during the first quarter of 2005, came from VentureWire today, which unfortunately requires a subscription. The goal is to develop technologies that will help with its missions to the moon and Mars. Congress has given it $10 million to start off with, according to one of the fund's partners, Patrick Ciganer, and budgeted $25 million over five years.

It will be called The Mercury Fund, and will be constructed along the lines of In-Q-Tel."