Breakout Labs

Last updated
Breakout Labs
Founded2012
Founder Peter Thiel
Headquarters38 Mesa St.,
San Francisco, CA
Parent Thiel Foundation
Website breakoutlabs.org

Breakout Labs was a grant-making program of the Thiel Foundation (a philanthropic organization created by Peter Thiel) from 2011 until 2021. Breakout Labs issued convertible grants [1] for early-stage commercialization of scientific research that was considered too speculative or long-term to interest the for-profit sector (such as angel investors and venture capitalists) but may have been unsuitable for traditional sources of funding for scientific research due to its radical or offbeat nature. [2] Grants were made through a competitive application and selection process. [3]

Contents

Recipients

Breakout Labs announced its first batch of grantees on April 17, 2012, [4] its second batch of grantees on August 15, 2012, [5] and its third batch of grantees in April 2013. [6] In total, Breakout Labs made 50 investments before winding down the program in 2021: [7]

Media coverage

The announcement of Breakout Labs (October 2011), as well as the announcements of its first batch of grantees (April 2012), received considerable media attention. [8] The first and second batches of grantees were covered by TechCrunch. [9] [10] Breakout Labs was also covered in Nature [11] and Scientific American . [12]

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References

  1. ↑ Parthasarathy, Hemai; Fishburne, Lindy (2015). "Philanthropy's role in translating scientific innovation". Nature Biotechnology. 33 (10): 1022–1025. doi:10.1038/nbt.3369. ISSN   1087-0156.
  2. ↑ "About Us page on Breakout Labs". Archived from the original on 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  3. ↑ "FAQs page on Breakout Labs". Archived from the original on 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  4. ↑ "Breakout Labs Announces First Grantees". Breakout Labs. 2012-04-17. Archived from the original on 2012-06-16. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  5. ↑ "Thiel Foundation's Breakout Labs Announces Newest Grants at the Intersection of Biology and Advanced Technologies". Breakout Labs. 2012-08-15. Archived from the original on 2012-10-13. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
  6. ↑ Cutler, Kim-Mai (2013-04-17). "Peter Thiel's Breakout Labs Funds "Nanostraws" And A Siri-Like Natural Language Processing Startup". TechCrunch . Retrieved 2013-04-17.
  7. ↑ "Peter Thiel's 'audacious' early-stage science Breakout Labs fund is winding down". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2024-02-19.
  8. ↑ "News page on Breakout Labs website". Archived from the original on 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  9. ↑ Tsotsis, Alexia (2012-04-17). "Peter Thiel's Breakout Labs Awards $350K Each To Six Ambitious Biotech Startups". TechCrunch.
  10. ↑ Cutler, Kim-Mai (2012-08-15). "Breakout Labs Grantees". TechCrunch.
  11. ↑ "PayPal co-founder's Breakout Labs issues first grants".
  12. ↑ "Breakout Labs – a new model for funding science and technology".
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