Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana

"This is building off successful economic development programs we have in place and building new ones that will set the stage for future economic growth in Wisconsin that will help companies survive the recession and come out of it stronger to compete with national and global competitors," said Lassa, chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Development.

The Act offers $120 million in gross premiums tax credits to insurance companies that invest in companies.
The idea is to foster a wave of entrepreneurship and identify businesses that could become transformational companies that take roost in the state and create jobs, said Matt Kisber, the state’s economic and community development commissioner.

About 40 other states have similar funds, and 27 of those have dedicated funding sources, such as appropriations from state government or specific taxes, Hecker said.

Angel investors in new technologies can get tax credits of as much as $20,000 under a Colorado law that took effect Tuesday.

Roth’s ideas should be of particular interest those of you who have followed our coverage of the funding crisis. In addition to chronicling the broken venture capital model, we have written about the resurgence of angel investors, as well as alternative funding models.

The authors advise that anything a region can do to increase the number of successful venture-backed investments in a region can greatly increase the likelihood of future deals. Once a region has experienced a few successes, they are much more likely to become the home of branch offices, which in turn are prone to invest locally.

The result is a model intended to minimize the expense to the state, provide incentives for participation by venture capital groups, and encourage funds to invest in seed and early stage small businesses in Tennessee within a designated time period.

Wisconsin’s new budget more than triples the annual pool of credits for angels and venture capitalists from $11.5 million to $37 million. Angel credits move to $18.25 million while from $5.5 million; VC credits jumps to $18.75 million from $6 million.

Investors in venture capital funds — most of whom manage foundations, endowments, pension funds and firms that invest money for wealthy families — say they want venture funds to shrink to a smaller size.

The National Association of Seed and Ventures Funds (NASVF) announced it is working with a national innovation intermediary, Innovation America, to create a new National Innovation Seed Fund of Funds (NISF) to help remedy the lack of funding for young entrepreneurial companies and to get knowledge-based job growth going again.