Illini Angels: U of I alumni investing in businesses that have connections to the school

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The founders of YouTube, PayPal and Yelp all have one thing in common: they all graduated from the University of Illinois. 

Now, the university is giving more students the opportunity to grow an empire with a big financial boost.

They are launching the Illini Angels Program, where alumni have the chance to invest in businesses that have a connection to the university.

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"The entire goal here is to bring our over 800,000 alumni across the world together with the ecosystem of innovation that's happening at the University of Illinois and allow those high net-worth individual alumni to invest in the companies that our students, faculty and our other alum are creating," said Nancy Sullivan, CEO and managing director of Illinois Ventures.

 The university ranks fifth in the nation for having the most alumni create successful businesses.