Ohio's hot with VC–and without

Not being a gambler, I like to put my money where I can at least pretend I have a reasonable chance of a decent return. Venture capitalists aren’t any different. They like the sure thing as much as the next guy.

Which is why Ohio should be happy to hear the news that Crain’s Cleveland Business reported today. BioEnterprise, the bigshot bio aggregator, so to speak, in Ohio just conducted a report and they’re saying Ohio’s looking good. “Ohio bioscience companies have raised $42 million this year, only $8 million behind Minnesota’s, which is seen as a Midwest leader in bioscience activity. Though I gotta tell ya, we still look pretty pathetic next to Massachusetts where the bio community collects, on average, $288 million.

Crain’s reports: “Ohio companies receiving venture capital during the first quarter were Axiomed Spine Corp. of Beachwood with $18 million, Ventaira Pharmaceuticals of Columbus with $13 million, Cleveland BioLabs with $5.9 million, and Imalux Corp. of Cleveland with $4.4 million.”

But this isn’t the whole story in Cleveland. Ohio might be even happier when they talk to a couple of people like Mike Burke of Trek Diagnostics and Arnon Chait over at Analiza. They’re going great guns pretty much venture-capital-free.

You go, guys. That’s Entrepreneurialism with a capitalist E.

Posted to BlogCritics