Georgia Research Alliance Seeks $40M Dedicated VC Fund

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue this month proposed a new $40 million Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) Venture Capital Fund to be fueled by $10 million from the state legislature and subsequently matched with $30 million from the private sector. Of the entire suite of GRA initiatives, this will be the first program not funded entirely by the state of Georgia.

 

The Venture Capital Fund will invest only in early-stage companies associated with GRA’s VentureLab program. The VentureLab program provides technology assessment, commercialization instruction and seed grants to marketable research developed at GRA’s partner universities. These partner universities are the University of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia, Emory University, Clark Atlanta University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Georgia State University.

 

One of the Venture Capital Fund’s goals is to provide the funding that will allow new companies to stay in the state without moving outside of Georgia to access capital. The fund’s primary targets for investment will be concentrated on technology in the life sciences, especially vaccines and anti-viral therapies.

 

To see the press release of the announcement, visit:

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/01-17-2008/0004738529&EDATE