The Ohio Third Frontier program has seeded a fourth fund with a $3 million award to the Ohio TechAngel Funds as part of the latest round of distributions from the state bond-backed technology initiative.
The Third Frontier Commission approved the award this week as part of $24 million for its Pre-Seed Fund Capitalization Program, which seeks to leverage state and private investment to help startup companies through their riskiest stages.
The award starts Ohio TechAngel Fund IV LLC. TechAngels invests about $1 million in companies followed by so-called “sidecar” amounts from private investors.
Public and private collaborators include Columbus2020, OhioHealth Corp., Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, plus several from Cleveland, including the Cleveland Clinic and BioEnterprise, as part of growing biotech partnerships between the regions.
Several Columbus funds also are participating, including Founders Factory, NCT Ventures, Fort Washington Capital Partners and Reservoir Venture Partners.
Another $2 million went to TechColumbus for its Pre-Seed program. TechColumbus backs and advises tech companies, runs an business incubator and is the administrative home for the TechAngel Funds.
Commissioners also awarded $9 million promised to JobsOhio, the state’s private development arm, including $1.8 million to its Columbus2020 regional affiliate. In October the commission had included the pledge in its $236 million budget.
An additional $610,000 made up of smaller grants went to several university-backed inventions to pay for prototypes or other steps needed to validate the commercial potential of an idea. Three of those were $50,000 grants apiece to Ohio State University projects for software for pathology testing, technology for acoustic diagnostic tests of the body and a more energy efficient air- and water-conditioning building system.
Source: Columbus Business First: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2012/12/14/ohio-techangels-gets-3m-from-third.html
