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.