New Venture Fund Pledged to Further Innovation in Roanoke-Blacksburg Region
The Virginia Tech Foundation, Carilion Clinic and the venture capital firm Third Security announced Tuesday they will invest $15 million to $20 million in Southwest Virginia business ventures.
According to the Roanoke Times, the new fund, Valley’s Ventures, resembles an earlier initiative by the same institutional investors which has invested $12.4 million in five area companies since 2004, creating more than 100 jobs and attracting an additional $100 million in outside investment, said Scott Horner, a managing director at Third Security.
The new fund intends to give preference to business ventures within 100 miles of the Roanoke and New River valleys. Ventures outside the designated zone would need to relocate all, or in large part, to the Roanoke-Blacksburg area, Horner said. The report went on to say that opportunities in life sciences are of interest, but the fund is not earmarked to bolster any specific industry.
