BURLINGTON, Vt. (Mon., July 6) - Members of Vermont's business community and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) gathered Monday at the new home to a start-up business to announce the creation of a $1 million seed capital fund that will offer businesses much-needed funding in this difficult economy. Leahy also welcomed two high-tech companies as new clients at the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET) - 89 North (www.89North.com), which hosted the event in Burlington, and Standards Technology Group (www.standardstech.com).Leahy secured a $1 million federal grant to create the Vermont Technology Seed Capital Fund in the federal government's 2009 budget. The fund, to be managed by VCET, will make early $50,000 to $250,000 high-risk equity investments in technology firms across the state with tremendous growth potential. In return, successful companies will repay the fund for ongoing reinvestments.
"A healthy economy requires businesses to have multiple sources of capital," said Leahy. "Vermont is blessed to have a variety of non-profit loan funds, at least one private venture capital fund and a myriad of private investors looking to invest in certain types of businesses. But after four years of VCET operations, it has become clear that Vermont needs more early capital that can help businesses through growing pains and create jobs for Vermonters."
To read the full, original article click on this link: Vermont EPSCoR – Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
