technology transfer offices
Technology transfer offices, or technology commercialization offices, are the commercialization arms of universities. These offices are responsible for taking the innovations developied at the university and developing a commercialization strategy for them. As such these offices will help people at the university (and sometimes others not necessarily at the university) to secure intellectual property rights on their offerings, develop a corporate structure, team build and soemtimes raise funding.
Motivation and timing of investor
The technology transfer office is looking to make a significant amount of money if your company does well. Related motives include increasing the profile of the university, helping others at the university to see the value of commercializing technology, and attracting more research funding. Technology transfer offices are usually long-term investors--meaning that they know they may not likely see a significant return for 5-10 years.
Typical Amount of Funding
Technology commercializtion offices typically do not provide financing in terms of cash investment. Often, however, they will provide some in-kind services.
Availability
Nearly all research universities have some kind of technology commercialization or transfer office. Contact your university or visit your university's website to find more information.
Interest and Principal Payments
These officees do not provide debt financing.
Equity
Some commercialization offices will take equity in your company in exchange for the services rendered. Also because university's will also claim some interest in the ideas developed using university time and resources, they will often negotiate for an equity stake based solely on these contributions. Some offices will request that the company that is formed pay the university a licensing fee for the technology or royalties on sales.
Control
Technology commercialization offices generally do not have significant control over the company beyond their equity stake and / or licensing agreement.
validation / Other
Technology commercialization offices provide some validation for your idea because they will probably not waste their time or scarce resources on bad concepts. However, most professional investors (like VCs) are still wary of many technology commercialization efforts because they often fall into the category of "technology looking for a market." This means that university's frequently develop amazing technology but it is not clear what applications the technology will have the real businesses and / or real customers are willing to pay for.