by Betty Beard - Oct. 29, 2011 01:28 PM
The Arizona Republic
Companies appearing at the annual Invest Southwest Capital Conference this week in hopes of landing seed money have a little more reason to be optimistic this year.
While Arizona has largely been ignored when it comes to venture capital, Grayhawk Capital of Arizona on Friday announced a $28.5 million venture-capital fund that can be used to help finance growing companies and produce more jobs.
"This is really the first venture fund that's been raised in Arizona in about five years," said Brian Smith, a Grayhawk managing member. "Unfortunately, Arizona doesn't have more venture capital, but the good news is we'll have one good-sized fund off the ground here."
The $28.5million fund means Grayhawk is almost a third of the way into its goal to build a $100million fund, Smith said. He also said the company has investors standing by willing to commit another $20million if their investments can be matched.
Some of the $28.5million could be provided to the 13 companies that will be making presentations to investors later this week, with benefits for the overall economy.
"The companies that are presenting are all in information technology, life science and clean technology. And so they are the types of companies that, if they are successful, they can grow very fast and become big. The salaries they pay tend to be more than double the average per capita income, because they are looking for technical skills," Smith said.
Invest Southwest, which is similar to other conferences held around the country, is designed to bring together serious investors and companies needing investments. This year, it is attracting more people than usual because it is being merged with Venture Capital in the Rockies' fall conference.
The 13 presenting companies, including four from Arizona, were selected from a record 130 applicants, and their leaders will each have 10 minutes to describe their products and management credentials. Originally, 14 companies were selected, but one dropped out.
A few might get money immediately as a result of the conference, but most will not or will have to wait months, said Phoenix attorney Dan Mahoney, who heads Snell & Wilmer's private-equity and venture-capital practice and is a past chairman of the conference.
"Of course, there are some companies that just never get funded. It's just because of scarce capital. The number of venture capitalists out there, particularly in this Western region, have been decimated."
In general, he said venture capitalists are looking for promising technology that is proprietary and that has the potential to appeal to a large market. They also like companies that can grow rapidly and that have top-notch management.
"They will invest in the management team just as much as the product,"
Mahoney said.
The Arizona presenters this year will be:
Green Light Cost Management, a Scottsdale information-technology firm that offers services to help health-care companies manage their expenses.
MSDx Inc., a Tucson company that develops commercial products to monitor neurological and autoimmune disorders, including multiple sclerosis.
Post.Bid.Ship, also of Tucson, was founded by three University of Arizona students to use technology to streamline freight transportation.
SyCara of Scottsdale provides search-engine-optimization technology to help companies manage workflow and reports.
Another company, San Diego-based Medipacs, has a research lab in Tucson. It has created a solid-state polymer pump that offers a new way to deliver medicine.
Regardless of whether individual companies land seed money or not, the conference is significant for the Phoenix area, said Chris Wolford, a financial vice president at the Miller Group, the conference's title sponsor. The Miller Group of Scottsdale provides financial and investment services.
"There is really no other event quite like it in the state of Arizona. Each year, during the time of the conference, it kind of puts the Phoenix area and the state and really the region on display and brings a lot of venture capitalists and angel investors from both the local market and outside the local market to look at these specific companies that are presented.
"It also puts Arizona more in the minds of investors."
Source: http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2011/10/29/20111029invest-southwest-startups.html
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