Ohio Has Braggin’ Rights!

JumpStart: IdeaExchange Blog » Blog Archive » Ohio Has Braggin’ Rights!

Posted By John Dearborn

Two weeks ago in Columbus, 500+ venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and government leaders gathered to hear about the accomplishments of The Ohio Capital Fund (OCF) and our State’s growing venture capital community. (For those of you not familiar, OCF provides incentives for investors from outside Ohio to invest in companies based here). Due to the work of many, including the OCF, the Ohio Department of Development, and all of the other members of the venture community - Ohio has earned some serious bragging rights! Among the many great accomplishments shared at the OCF Summit, here are some of the most compelling:

• 196 companies received $446 million in equity investment in 2008. Of this, 73 companies (37% ) and $259 million (55%) were from the Northeast Ohio region.
• Total investment dollars ranked Ohio as 13th in the U.S. for venture investing.
• Early-stage funding (which represents the type of dollars that would be invested in a company after a JumpStart Ventures investment) was up 67% from 2007 ($238 million in 2008), compared to a decrease nationally of 20%.
• Organized angels invested $45 million in 107 companies in 2008. I have to believe this is one of the top levels of investment and broadest reach of companies of the last decade, if not longer.

*Read the rest of the 2008 Ohio Venture Capital Report from Ohio State for the rest of the details

Relative to The Ohio Capital Fund itself, its success is also evident with these stats:

• The fund has invested $111 million in 21 funds, which have deployed that capital in over 35 companies.
• These companies receiving investment have created 1400 jobs, and not one of those jobs has gone away in the last 12+ months.

Some of the other information shared included the impact of Ohio Third Frontier, as reported by the Stanford Research Institute’s report released last month. Consider this data regarding VC investment in the state:

• Venture capital investing has grown over 13% per year over the last five years in Ohio, more than double the national rate of VC growth
• Total seed and early-stage VC has actually grown at 18% per year over the last five years

Ohio Third Frontier and the Ohio Capital Fund have played an instrumental role in this growth, but not the only role; this success is also due to the entrepreneurs of our region, who have identified the ideas, pursued their growth, and grown the businesses that are attractive and competitive investments for investors within and outside of the region.

John Dearborn is the Chief Development Officer of JumpStart and brings experience as an entrepreneur, founder and CEO at companies across the US and Europe over the last 25 years to the pursuit of economic transformation in Northeast Ohio.