Akron’s losing one investment fund but growing another larger one in the process.

The Akron Bioinvestment Fund II (ABF II) is merging with the Akron Fusion Investment Partners (AFI) fund formed last year by JumpStart Inc., Acquire Investments and Bounce Innovation Hub, said Acquire CEO Bill Manby and others involved in the deal.

The deal adds $3 million in assets from Bioinvestment to Fusion — half of it in cash and commitments, the rest in the form of minority stakes in eight portfolio companies.

The combination is nearly a merger of equals, since Fusion already had raised more than $3 million on its own, said Manby and his partner in Acquire, Victoria Tifft.

The deal gives Fusion some additional critical mass and moves it more rapidly toward its ultimate goal of raising and investing $20 million, the two said.

“We’re in fundraising mode, and our goal is to get to $20 million. Our original goal was to get to $10 million by end of this year and then an additional $10 million in 2020. Now we are trying to accelerate all of that,” Tifft said.

Akron Bioinvestment Fund chairman Bob Merzweiler said his board — which represents a group of hospitals, local businesses and other private investors who put up the capital for his fund — is fully aware of and on board with the move. He declined to name investments made by his fund, which he said was capitalized by private investors who had not signed off on such disclosures.

Fusion’s founders were also on board.

“This is a situation where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. ABF II’s trust in what AFI is building supports the potential to positively impact everyone involved, including investors, portfolio companies and the community,” Bounce CEO Doug Weintraub said.

By combining the two firms, their capital will be actively managed by Manby and Tifft. A team a team of volunteers, including Merzweiler, had been running ABF II in addition to their day jobs, he said.

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