Tag Archive for 'georgia research alliance'

Okay, So Maybe It Isn’t That Bad

Published on January 17, 2008 in Events and Venture Capital. 0 Comments

Georgia Gov. Sonny PerdueOkay, so I take back some of what I’ve said. I dug into the legislative agenda coming from Governor Purdue (thanks to Georgia Legislative Watch for the file). In terms of the venture capital fund, this is what it says:

Create the Georgia Research Alliance venture capital initiative: add $5M to $5M of existing funds to create the GRA venture capital fund that will be attached to ATDC under the Board of Regents. This fund will help technology that is developed in our research universities become commercialized. In exchange for investing in these companies, Georgia will receive equity in the company. The $10M of state dollars will be matched by $30M of private dollars to create a total of $40M venture capital fund.

ATDCSo the first good thing I see here is the fact that the money will be attached to ATDC. Thank goodness. ATDC has been around for quite some time but lately they’ve revved up their engine and been doing a lot of good things and supporting a lot of great events.

The only bummer that remains is that if you aren’t doing a technology coming out of a research university (so that would be Georgia Tech, Georgia State, UGA, and probably a few others) then this pool of money is out of reach for you. The description doesn’t limit to just life sciences which I thought might be the case based on Governor Perdue’s remarks.

The other interesting thing in the agenda is this tidbit:

Promote Georgia as an internationally known Bioscience hub: $375,000 to fund the state of Georgia sponsorship of BIO 2009, the global event for biotechnology, with an anticipated attendance of more than 20,000.

Well, that’s pretty interesting. I found the local site for the conference (May 17-20, 2009). I’m assuming the official site will go up at some point. This year’s conference is in San Diego (June 17-20, 2008). I don’t know ifthis will really help spur any more innovative development in Georgia but it will help expose the innovation happening here to the rest of the world and expose people here to innovation happening elsewhere. That alone will be a win.

Gov. Perdue’s State of the State

Published on January 17, 2008 in Venture Capital. 1 Comment

Following up on Governor Perdue’s announcement at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce to create a venture capital fund for commercializing research coming out of Georgia colleges, here is a relevant snippet from yesterday’s State of the State address.

I announced yesterday that Georgia, along with our private sector partners, will invest $40 million for venture capital to commercialize research in areas like biosciences and medicine coming out of our universities. Friends, Georgia will lead the way as a global center for health.

So from this, it sounds like the focus will not only be solely on research out of Georgia colleges but also with a focus on life sciences.  I guess everything will be a lot clearer once legislation starts making its way through the system but this is turning out to be a bigger bummer than I thought.

GRA’s New Venture Fund

Published on January 16, 2008 in Venture Capital. 4 Comments

Georgia Research AllianceSigh. I read this story and again, I got excited. Until I dug into the details. Don’t get me wrong, I think more investment is a great thing. I just wish this didn’t have and funding restrictions.

The gist of the story is that the Georgia Research Alliance is going to set up a venture fund to provide early stage financing to startups. The state will provide $10 million and be matched by $30 million by the private sector. So a total of $40 million available for investment.

The problem (for me) is this caveat:

“The intent of the fund is to grow sustainable Georgia-based companies,” said Mike Cassidy, GRA’s president. “The technology has to have been originated in one of Georgia’s research universities.”

Gah! The reasoning behind this?

“Georgia starts with a very limited amount of venture capital capacity,” Cooper said. “Our reason for doing this is to encourage research and let the universities and their researchers know that there will be financing for their innovations. That will help create jobs.”

Really? Researchers at our colleges won’t do research if they aren’t sure their ideas won’t get funded? Is that really the reason that researchers do research at colleges - to build funded companies? I mean, the title you’ve given them is “researcher”. What will they do otherwise? I just don’t get it. The first part of the quote is right on track but then everything just derails after that.

The other thing I learned was this tidbit:

This is not the first time the GRA has backed a venture capital fund. In 1994, Alliance Technology Ventures was launched to invest in new Georgia technology companies.

In case you missed it, I recently wrote a post on ATV. I had no idea the GRA was involved in ATV’s formation. What doesn’t make sense is why ATV was allowed to fold when the GRA knew that they were advancing this initiative. That is pretty puzzling.  Perhaps the GRA doesn’t want a traditional VC structure around this fund.  There aren’t any details in the article so it’s hard to tell.

Scott Burkett is a bit more positive than me. Maybe I’m just being grumpy and should be happy for whatever we can get.  My belief is that by artificially restricting access to funding like this will inevitably lead to less than stellar returns and give folks a reason to point and say that you need harsher terms in Georgia and/or there aren’t any good deals in Georgia.  Both of which we know aren’t true.