VIC Technology Venture Development Announces New Network, Expansion

VIC Technology Venture Development, a private technology venture development firm based at the Arkansas Research and Technology Park, has formed the VIC Investor Network, a new fund that will significantly accelerate and expand technology venture development in Arkansas.

The VIC Investor Network will place $250,000 start-up capital into every new portfolio company that VIC forms, Calvin Goforth, chief executive officer and founder of VIC Technology, announced on Thursday, Feb. 21.

The network funding will allow VIC to jumpstart its new portfolio companies and significantly shorten the average company development time, Goforth told a group gathered at the company’s offices in the Innovation Center at the research park in south Fayetteville. The University of Arkansas Technology Development Foundation manages the park, where VIC Technology Venture Development and several of its portfolio companies rent office space and utilize laboratories.

 With the VIC Investor Network in place, VIC will add four new companies to its portfolio each year, thereby tripling the firm’s previous expansion rate, Goforth said. The company estimates that more than 100 high-paying jobs will be created in VIC portfolio companies over the next three years.

 VIC will also add sites across the United States, as it has developed and proven a uniquely effective business model for translating university research into outstanding young technology companies, according to Goforth.

Mitch Horowitz, vice president and managing director of Ohio-based Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, spoke about the importance of technology based economic development for Arkansas’ future economy, the benefits of the state’s incentive programs for encouraging such development.

“VIC fills key challenges and gaps for technology based economic development efforts by bringing together the initial management, product development, business development, and administrative teams needed to launch successful companies based on university inventions,” said Horowitz, who led an in-depth 2012 Battelle study titled “Arkansas’ Knowledge Economy Initiatives.”

Following the announcement, guests interacted with several VIC portfolio companies that showcased their new products and services. One company, Ascendant Diagnostics, is developing a screening test to detect early-stage breast cancer with just a tear sample. Another, CardioWise, is perfecting a single diagnostic test that will provide unprecedented information about heart health. 

A third VIC company, BioDetection Instruments, has developed an instrument that provides rapid detection of bacteria and other contaminants in food, water, and beverages that is portable, easy to use, and reliable.

For the past nine years, VIC has developed a unique business model for forming and developing companies based on licensed early-stage technologies from the University of Arkansas and other top research universities across the country.

VIC’s method of building companies uses a shared-resources model where technical, business, financial, and legal expertise is brought together, allowing for lower costs and higher success rates.