New York Ventures to Oversee State’s Innovation Investment Funds

This week marked the launch of New York Ventures, an Empire State Development program dedicated to encouraging innovation and fueling economic growth in communities across New York. The program is derived of three separate funds: the $100 million New York State Innovation Venture Capital Fund; the $45 million Innovative NY Fund; and, the $2 million Minority- and Women-Owned Business Investment Fund. As part of the New York Ventures launch, Empire State Development also announced the NYS Innovation Venture Capital Fund’s close on financing for two New York-based tech companies.

A key component of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s economic development agenda, the New York State Innovation Venture Capital Fund was announced in December 2014 with the intention of creating and attracting new jobs and companies by providing seed funding for the development of early stage companies in high-growth areas. Originally set to be $50 million, Cuomo called to double this amount in his State of the State Opportunity Agenda.  The now-$100 million fund, which is expected to leverage at least $100 million more in private capital, is comprised of two segments. The Technology Commercialization Segment facilitations commercialization efforts associated with New York’s universities, making pre-seed stage investments up to $100,000. With investments ranging from $100,000 to $5 million, the Seed and Early Stage Co-Investment Segment invests directly in seed and early stage companies with an emphasis on strategic industries such as information technology and life sciences.

The $45 million Innovate NY Fund is comprised of $35 million in State SSBCI funds and $10 million from Goldman Sachs. The fund contracts with eight different investment entities, securing a 2:1 match from private sources, and has invested more than $23.5 million in 64 New York companies as of March 2015.  

New York Ventures also includes the $2 million seed stage Minority- and Women-Owned Business Investment Fund, announced by Gov. Cuomo in May. In deals conducted through a Rochester-based venture capital firm, the fund provides seed and pre-seed financing for minority- and women-owned startups, with a focus on the industries of advanced materials, clean technology, life sciences and medical devices.  

To read more about New York Ventures, read the press release here: http://esd.ny.gov/NewsRoom/Data/2015/08032015_NYVentures_PR.pdf