Connecticut Innovations, the state agency that invests in tech companies, said it's seeing a rise in entrepreneurial activity in the state. It's also seeking new opportunities to invest both in Connecticut companies and globally.
CI said in fiscal year 2016, which just ended, it invested $31 million in emerging and growing tech businesses around the state. That was a boost from the previous year, and a lot of the increase came from a growing focus on bioscience. While the majority of CI’s investment has always gone to companies in the sector, this year 68 percent -- just over $21 million -- was bioscience investment. The balance of the investment went largely to information technology and clean energy companies.
CEO Matt McCooe said his goal is to grow bioscience investment alone to more than $25 million. "In fiscal year '17, I expect you’ll see an increase as we really ramp up our investment in bioscience companies in and around the state," he told WNPR.
That's partly because CI is also now deploying money from the recently created Bioscience Innovation Fund, and it has a new mandate to look not just for commercial ventures, but also for activities in universities around the state that looks like they could make money. "[If] they’ve got great research that looks really promising, to actually being able to replicate the research and get the proof of concept done, so that we can then start a company around it," said McCooe.
He is confident CI can find likely investment targets that will make good returns. He said in 2015 it investigated 250 companies looking for funding; in 2016 that number was 600, of which it invested in around ten percent.
"I do think the uptick in activity is quite real, I think the number show it," he said. CI also points to the private money it's leveraging; the companies it invested in also raised $97.5 million from private sources in the last year.
Investing in homegrown companies will always be CI’s bread and butter, but it also is now beginning to reach out overseas. It recently invested in an Israeli software company, Cyber SecBI, and it also launched a global competition, VentureClash to attract digital health and financial services technology companies to the state.
Of the 100 applicants, it will select up to six this October to receive money, from a $5 million fund.