Author: Robert Trigaux
Publisher: Tampa Bay Times
Date: October 22, 2012
Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan visited the University of South Florida in Tampa Friday to talk about USF’s Center for Entrepreneurship. Everybody loves to embrace the idea of encouraging business start-ups. But Florida still suffers from a serious lack of venture capital support. Is this a chicken and egg problem? If we had more and better start-ups, would Florida get mopre VC backing? Or are the best start-ups in Florida leaving the state in search of more investment money, especially in California where venture capital tends to invest heavily?
Wake up and good morning. Did venture capital decide to take a siesta in Florida? New data MoneyTree data show that in the entire country venture capitalists invested $6.5 billion in 890 deals in the third quarter that ended Sept. 30. That’s a decline of 11 percent in dollars and 5 percent in the number of deals compared to the second quarter of 2012, according to data gatherersPricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. Read more here. And here’s the AP story.
So how did perennially VC-lean Florida fare in the latest quarter? Only 10 deals happened for a total amount of just $28.6 million. So where does that put the Florida economy on the venture capital/business entrepreneur scale?
It means that in the third quarter of 2012, Florida generated just over 1 percent of the deals nationwide involving less than 0.5 percent of the actual dollars. In other words, Florida was barely a blip on the U.S. venture capital radar in the just finished quarter. Read more here.
