SSTI Digest

For the first time, the Chinese venture capital (VC) market has surpassed the U.S. VC market in total dollars invested in Q2 of 2018, according to Crunchbase. Driven by mega rounds and strong corporate VC, Chinese startups were able to raise more VC money in Q2’18 than their American counterparts. The strong Q2 for Chinese’s firms was driven by a very strong April. Chinese companies attracted approximately $15.6 billion that month. In comparison, U.S. companies attracted an average of U.S. $9.4 billion per month in Q1’18. In total, Chinese firms attracted approximately 47 percent of all reported VC dollars invested in Q2’18. If this trend continues, 2018 may become the year of the Chinese VC market.

The public holds an overwhelmingly positive view of public spending on higher education in the U.S., and they believe American colleges and universities benefit both society-at-large and individual graduates, according to a new research brief from Teachers College, Columbia University. Researchers looked at three related issues through an online survey of adults: Americans' views towards public investment in higher education; perceived contributions of higher education to American society (a public good) and to graduates (a private benefit); and, attitudes towards public spending on 2‐ and 4‐year institutions.  

(Figure 2.2 above from: Americans views of higher education as a public and private good. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University)

Help inform decisions on the direction of federal R&D's role in innovation! Please complete this 10-minute survey by July 25 to share your ideas of current and future practices affecting R&D direction and tech transfer options with the federal labs.

A summary of the survey results will become part of a report that will be shared with the National Institute of Standards and Technology on our field's perceptions of federal tech transfer efforts. More information is available at here.

The U.S. Department of Energy has launched a new Lab Partnering Service (LPS) that provides an online, single access point platform for investors, innovators and institutions to identify, locate and obtain information on the department’s 17 national laboratories. The new tool is intended to provide industry with a more efficient way to harness technical expertise and intellectual property housed at DOE’s labs.

The LPS gives energy investors and innovators direct access to the expertise, research and capabilities across all 17 labs. Users of the new service will be able to submit inquiries to the technology transfer office at each lab.

The LPS has three main components that should reduce barriers to partnering with the labs: access to national lab researchers that will allow investors and innovators to connect with subject matter experts and receive technical assessments; direct access to pre-validated, ready to license technologies; and, a dynamic online search and visualization database tool for patents associated with DOE laboratories.

After 20 years of a program that had supported innovation in the state of Kentucky, the governor said he wanted to consolidate the funding to support entrepreneurs and become more strategic in the state’s efforts. This month, the state unveiled a new program — Regional Innovation for Startups and Entrepreneurs (RISE), a strategy that unites each area’s most powerful economic drivers, prioritizes commercialization and promotes rapid scaling.  The new strategy is designed to decrease duplication of efforts and get investments more directly to entrepreneurs, said Brian Mefford, the executive director of KY Innovation.

In last week’s Digest, SSTI looked at several macro venture capital (VC) trends, this week’s Useful Stats article focuses on regional trends as well as provides downloadable VC stats by state by quarter from Q1 of 2016 to Q2 of 2018. The data includes median VC deal size, VC deals, and VC dollars invested.

North Carolina and Tennessee are implementing new initiatives to get students in their states the help they need to either complete degrees or training that will help improve workforce development in those states. North Carolina’s governor recently added a new line of grants dubbed “Finish Line” grants, to help students that are struggling with non-academic problems complete community college. And Tennessee is rebranding its Tennessee Pathways program, employing regional coordinators to work in nine economic regions of the state to lead the alignment of local education institutions and employers.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced the Finish Line Grants program to help community college students who face financial emergencies. The program will help students pay for course materials, housing, medical needs, dependent care and other unforeseen financial emergencies. Students receive a maximum of $1,000 per semester.

The 36|86 Entrepreneurship Festival, being held Aug. 29-30 in Nashville and powered by Launch Tennessee, is one of the Southeast's largest gathering of entrepreneurs, innovators, VCs and ecosystem builders. Join your peers to hear from Fortune 500 leaders, startup founders, and top VC's from around the country. Agenda highlights include impact investing, opportunity zones, startup ecosystems done right and going to market right the first time. More information and registration is available here. 

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), USDA, is announcing the I-FAST prize competition to develop and implement the Innovations in Food and Agricultural Science and Technology (I-FAST) program. NIFA will partner with NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) to provide entrepreneurship training to NIFA grantees under this pilot program. The goals are to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from NIFA supported academic research. Over six months, the selected teams will learn what it will take to achieve an economic impact with their particular innovation. The final goal of the competition is to facilitate technology transfer of innovations that can make an impact in the marketplace.

The pre-application phase competition submission is open and ends August 3. More information is available here.

Investment in 3,912 venture-backed companies reached $57.5 billion invested across 3,997 deals in the first half of 2018, according to the 2Q 2018 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. With six months remaining in 2018, the $57.5 billion invested by venture capital (VC) firms already exceeds the full-year total for six of the past 10 years. If the current pace of dollars invested continues, 2018 will surpass 2017 as the highest amount of capital deployed by VCs in a year since the dot com era (early 2000s). Q1 and Q2 of 2018 also report as the highest quarters for VC dollars invested since the start of 2011.

The Minnesota Department of Deployment and Economic Development (DEED) has launched a new loan program for entrepreneurs with high-tech products or services. The loans are similar in size to microfinance options increasingly available to new bricks-and-mortar establishments, but flexible payment options and innovation-focused criteria are intended to make Minnesota Innovation Loans for Entrepreneurs (MILE) uniquely appropriate for tech-based economic development.

The debt provided through MILE is generous to entrepreneurs. There is no interest on the loan, and repayments do not start until year two, escalating through the four-year term. Loans may be $20,000-$50,000 and must be equally matched by another source.

A new Pew Research Center survey shows strong support among Americans for government investments in medical research, engineering and technology, and basic scientific research, echoing previous reports from 2014 and 2009. That support crosses political parties, although liberal Democrats show a greater percentage of support (92 percent) compared to conservative Republicans (61 percent).