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February 5, 2008 - 11:36PM
Venture capital group aims to help Arizona businesses
Ed Taylor, Tribune
A group of investors has formed the first venture capital firm that will focus on Arizona bioscience start-up companies.
Called the Translational Accelerator LLC, the Scottsdale-based $20 million venture capital group will provide financing for fledgling bioscience companies that are beyond the government-funded research phase but have not yet reached late-stage clinical trials, the organizers said.
TRAC investments will only support companies located in Arizona or those planning to move to the state, said Richard Love, a former senior executive with the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix and one of TRAC's managers. "There has been a shortage of venture capital in Arizona," he said. "Nationally there has been quite a bit of venture capital, but most of them want to invest locally, where they have local representation."
The Arizona fund will generally invest between $500,000 and $2 million per company, with a focus on firms developing services and treatments for cancer and diseases of the central nervous system, such as Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis, Love said. The fund has already made its first small investment in Silamed, a Scottsdale-based start-up company that is developing new medicines for treating cancer, he said. The seed funds provided by TRAC are intended to help the company get ready for larger investments, said Eric Tooker, president of Medical Consultant Services and another fund manager.
Fund managers are looking at about two dozen other Arizona companies for investments, he said. If the fund is successful, it could attract more venture capital to Arizona from out of state, Tooker said.
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