Resource: CincyTech

CincyTech is a public-private partnership whose mission is to invest in high--growth startup technology companies in Southwest Ohio.  This is done through management assistance, seed-capital investments and connections to partners who share our mission.

CincyTech is supported by the State of Ohio's Third Frontier Project and by corporations, foundations and research institutions in Southwest Ohio. Its work focuses on opportunities in information technology and life sciences. 

CincyTech provides the following services:

• Connections to a network of resources for assistance.
• Management assistance provided by a team of executives-in-residence and investment associates to help accelerate the growth of promising technology companies.
• Seed-stage investments through a $10.4 million seed fund.
• Capital formation assistance provided by an investment development director, who works with clients to access follow-on rounds of capital from angel and private-equity investors regionally and nationally.
• Imagining Grants to prove the potential of technologies developed at regional research centers to be commercialized by startup companies. Grants also will be available to launch new companies based on orphaned technology at established regional companies.

Since it began investment activity in May 2007, CincyTech has:

• Considered more than 1,800 investment opportunities.
• Provided substantive advice to more than 421 companies.
• Invested $5.3 million in 17 companies -- 11 in information technology, five in bioscience and one in advanced manufacturing.
• Helped local startup companies raise $89 million from seed- or early-stage venture investors.

Through September 2010, CincyTech's portfolio companies have created 250 jobs at an average annual wage of $61,000. At this rate, those companies are on track to produce up to 1,000 jobs over the next eight years. At the same time, the partnership will have expanded the region's entrepreneurial class with a new cadre of successful business leaders with the capacity to launch new firms, support the arts and other philanthropic activities, and assume civic leadership responsibilities.