News and Events
March 11, 2010
Venture Fund Makes Commitment to Stonehenge Growth Equity
The Florida Opportunity Fund today announced a commitment to invest with Stonehenge Growth Equity Fund I,L.P., a venture firm with an extensive Florida portfolio and operations based in Tampa. With a commitment of up to $4 million to Stonehenge Growth Equity, the Florida Opportunity Fund has announced deals totaling $23 million with local, regional and national funds.
Weve worked aggressively over the past year to do our due diligence in bringing in high-caliber funds poised to invest more in the State and be a boost for the economy, said Jennifer Dunham of Florida First Partners, manager of the State program.
The agreement with Stonehenge is the sixth investment for the $29.5 million Florida Opportunity Fund, which focuses on venture firms seeking to finance seed or early-stage companies in the States strategic growth sectors such as biotech, renewable energy, homeland security and information technology.
Stonehenge Growth Equity includes a team in Tampa that has focused on early-stage ventures in the State for the past decade, investing in more than 17 Florida companies. Those include:
• Authentec, a Melbourne-based company that has pioneered designs for smart sensors and other touch technologies used in PCs, cell phones and other products.
• Pilgrim Software, a global provider of software for the life science, automotive, aerospace and defense industries with operations in Tampa.
• Electronic Data Resources of West Palm Beach, a leader in electronic payment services applications.
Our focus on fostering growth companies that create high-wage jobs and strong returns for investors is strongly aligned with the mission of the Florida Opportunity Fund, said Stonehenge Growth Equity managing director Steven Lux.
Stonehenge has combined with out-of-state firms for more than $200 million of investments in its Florida portfolio companies.
With Stonehenge, the Florida Opportunity Fund is investing in a firm proven to have a strong record of luring venture capitalists to the State and attracting more national dollars, said Louis Laubscher, chief operating officer and senior vice president of Enterprise Florida.
The State investment in Stonehenge is in addition to five commitments announced during the past year. The Funds previously announced commitments:
• Element Partners, a venture capital group with a long history of financing early-stage Florida companies, including more than $55 million in industries that include solar energy, water desalination, green manufacturing and information technology.
• Inflexion Partners, a firm with offices in Orlando and Tampa that focuses on seed or early-stage medical technology, clean technology and information technology. Inflexion has eight companies in its Florida portfolio.
• New Enterprise Associates, a firm that has invested more than $70 million in companies that have attracted an additional $350 million in funding to the State.
• Harbert Venture Partners, a group that focuses on early-stage information technology and biotech opportunities. With a newly opened office Gainesville, its Florida portfolio includes the high-performing health products designer NovaMin Technologies.
• 5AM Ventures III, a bioscience venture capital group whose managing partner is the former chairman of The Scripps Research Institute. 5AM Ventures recently led a group investment with a life sciences startup company in Jupiter, Fla., a spin-off of Scripps Florida.
March 11, 2010
Save the Date: Leon County Sustainable Communities Summit 2010
Building on the efforts of the 2008 summit, this year's event will educate, motivate and inspire more than 400 attendees. The 2010 Summit will focus on how to foster a sustainable economy and the importance of sustainable food systems. Ideas will be shared on fueling our own local economy with business synergy as well as conscious food production and consumption. The events takes place May 6 and 7 at the FSU Turnbull Conference Center. For more information, contact Maggie Theriot at 850.606.5380 or sustainability@LeonCountyFl.gov.
Linda Dunwoody, Chair of the Renewable Energy & the Environment Roundtable, and Kara Palmer, EDC Manager of Research and Projects, are serving on the planning committee for the event.
March 11, 2010
Economic Developers Brief Legislators
Economic gardening technical assistance programs funded in a 2009 special session are beginning to bear fruit and should be expanded, leaders from Florida’s economic development community told members of the House Economic Development and Community Affairs Council today.
“Though only in its fifth month, this economic development tool has proven to be a tremendous success to business,” said Amy Evancho, president of the Florida Economic Development Council (FEDC), a 450-member statewide association of economic development professionals working in both the public and private sector to advance Florida’s economy.
The Florida Economic Development Act created a $1.5 million fund for economic gardening, which focuses on support of second-stage companies that have grown past the startup stage. In November the Governor’s Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development selected a team at the University of Central Florida (UCF) to create the Florida Economic Gardening Institute to administer a statewide technical assistance program for second-stage growth companies.
UCF’s Dr. Tom O’Neal, associate vice president of Research and Commercialization and program administrator of the Florida Economic Gardening Institute, told legislators that in just its first 120 days his team created a statewide system it calls GrowFL (www.GrowFL.com) and has:
• Established a robust Web site to facilitate an application process;
• Rolled the program out statewide at a variety of events and through an aggressive publicity program;
• Engaged more than 200 companies and processed more than 100 online applications;
• Accepted 35 companies into the technical assistance program;
• Deployed an experienced “Jump Start” team of technical assistance professionals;
• Begun delivering services to the first 25 companies while continuing to add more to the system; and,
• Initiated selection and training of a resident Florida Technical Assistance Team.
There are 5,000 companies in Florida that fit the specific criteria of second-stage growth companies. These for-profit, privately held businesses employ between 10 and 50 people, generate $1 million to $25 million in annual revenue, demonstrate growth in number of employees and gross revenues during three of the past five years, and qualify for the tax refund program for qualified target industry businesses.
“Our EDC is 100 percent behind this program. We have designated this ‘The Era of the Entrepreneur’ because there is unquestionable evidence that job creation comes from these second-stage growth companies,” said Collier County Economic Development Council President Tammie Nemecek. “In our community, the work of the GrowFL Program has already begun to make a difference. This is the bread and butter of economic development.”
O’Neal told the Council, “These are the companies that economists estimate will create 40 percent of Florida’s job growth over the next five years. The GrowFL program has the potential to create 1,500 jobs over the next 18 months alone based on the preliminary projections supplied by the companies enrolled in the program.
“Further, it is estimated that these companies have the potential to increase sales by $200 million over the same 18 months. Those are incredible numbers when considered in the context of the relatively small investment needed to create and run this program.”
GrowFL’s Technical Assistance Team provides companies understanding of and access to Information Tools, including:
• Database Research,
• Search Engine Optimization,
• Geographic Information Systems and
• Network Mapping Social Media.
They also help with Decision-Making tools that include:
• Strategy Analysis,
• Management Team Temperament,
• Capital Referrals and
• Labor Referrals.
“Beyond what our one-to-one technical assistance program will do for the 300 companies selected this year, our outreach will touch another thousand companies through networking events, seminars and outreach, CEO forums and roundtables, financial networking events and workshops, and online education programs,” said O’Neal.
The Florida Economic Gardening Institute was created by the 2009 Florida Legislature as the Economic Gardening Technical Assistance Pilot Program to stimulate investment in Florida’s economy by providing technical assistance for expanding businesses in the state. Qualified companies must be engaged in the following sectors: Manufacturing; Finance & Insurance Services; Wholesale Trade; Information Industries; Professional, Scientific & Technical Services; Management Services; and, Administrative & Support Services. Additional information is available at www.GrowFL.com.
