|
 |
|
|
INVESTMIDWEST
FORUM EXPANDS REACH, INFLUENCE
In just three years, the InvestMidwest Venture Capital Forum has
established itself as the Midwest’s premier annual venture capital
forum, to date generating more than $100 million in equity investment
for innovative entrepreneurial growth companies. From the Forum’s
early focus on companies located primarily in the St. Louis/Kansas
City regions, InvestMidwest is now poised to expand its reach to
encompass the country’s entire central corridor, thereby attracting
a larger audience of regional and national venture capitalists.
InvestMidwest is presented by the RCGA, Missouri Venture Forum,
Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, KCCatalyst, Kansas Technology
Enterprise Corporation and Technology Gateway Alliance. The Forum
is sponsored by the Danforth Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation and a diverse group of public and private organizations.
The Forum attracts the best of high-growth companies, providing
the opportunity annually for 15 to 20 emerging growth businesses
seeking funding to showcase their potential to 250 to 300 of the
country’s leading venture capitalists, investors, bankers and accounting
and legal professionals. Forum organizers ensure that presenting
companies provide an excellent cross-section of the range of the
Midwest’s diverse economic base, including biotechnology, information
technology, telecommunications, health care, manufacturing and retail.
Dr.
Rodolfo Zentella and Anita Frevert, employees of Divergence,
are looking at plant callus. |
|
Several critical factors make the Midwest an attractive location
for entrepreneurial endeavors:
Many Midwestern state and local governments strongly support venture
programs. The success of Missouri’s Certified Capital Program (CAPCO),
for example, provides strong evidence that state-funded venture
capital works to help entrepreneurs create successful businesses
that, in turn, create high-paying jobs and enhance the tax base.
The RCGA spearheaded the effort to organize government, business
and economic development leaders to work together positioning the
Midwest as a world-class market for the biotech industry in particular.
Together, they have aggressively marketed the region and created
a positive environment for technology and biotech start-ups.
Labor costs in the Midwest have remained relatively low, and critical
supporting community and business infrastructure are strong.
Already, InvestMidwest has a strong track record of success in bringing
together start-up companies with funding that is helping them realize
their potential quickly:
|
Located
in Overland Park, Kan., Corporate Woods is one of
the thousands of properties listed in Xceligent’s
sophisticated real estate database. |
|
- XCELIGENT–a
software company that enables real estate brokers, appraisers,
developers and lenders to use the company’s CDX data-exchange
system to share property information, to date has received
$12 million in venture funding, $5 million since presenting
at InvestMidwest in May 2002.
- QUICK
STUDY RADIOLOGY–a provider of picture archiving and
communication systems (PACS), radiology information systems
(RIS), Web distribution and archive technology for small-
to mid-sized hospitals and imaging centers–presented at
InvestMidwest in 2002 and has to date received $14.76
million in venture funding, from firms including A.G.
Edwards Capital, Capital For Business, Oakwood Medical
Ventures, and Gateway Associates, managers of a Missouri
CAPCO funds.
- DIVERGENCE–a
venture capital-backed research and development company
dedicated to the discovery of effective and ecologically
sound strategies for the control of parasites and other
pests–presented at InvestMidwest in 2001–to date has received
approximately $5 million in equity financing. Divergence
has received funding from Prolog Ventures, which raised
its funds using tax credits from the Missouri New Enterprise
Creation Act (NECA).
|
In 2003, management
representing the InvestMidwest Forum’s 20 selected presenters will
seek venture capital funding for their companies ranging from several
hundred thousand to $20 million each. Carefully chosen from numerous
qualified applicants, presenting companies are scrutinized and selected
based on several factors: strength of the company management team,
marketing strategy, proprietary nature of the products or services,
market opportunity and financials.
The
InvestMidwest Venture Capital Forum is held annually in May, alternating
between Kansas City and St. Louis. Kansas City’s Hyatt Regency Crown
Center is the venue for this year’s Forum, May 21-22. For more information,
visit www.investmidwestforum.com.
|
|
|
|
|
-
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
-
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
-
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
-
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
|
