Any true Pittsburgh sports fan despises Cleveland. Wretched Browns! But when it comes to building tech businesses, we love ‘em!
So check this out. In 2007, the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG) and BioEnterprise of Cleveland announced a strategic collaboration to work together in creating a “Biosciences Tech Belt” linking the biosciences assets of the adjacent metro areas. The objective of the collaboration is to leverage the existing resources of both regions to draw greater levels of funding and talent into the areas.
In 2007, the area had significant success in bioscience venture activity:
- The combined regions drew $343 million in healthcare venture investment in 2007 across 45 companies;
- The regions boasted eight company exits, including those of Renal Solutions (Fresenius), MemberHealth (Universal American), and USB (Affymetrix) in 2007, and several additional in 2008, including WholeHealth (Walgreen), NDI Medical (Medtronic), and Theken (Integra);
- PLSG and BioEnterprise have made numerous cross-introductions of venture capital firms and initiated the exploration of 18 company collaborations;
- Several venture firms from each region have opened offices in the adjacent metro area including Chrysalis Ventures, Draper Triangle Ventures, and iNetworks;
- Finally, the regions have hosted and leveraged four healthcare venture investment conferences in thee last years including the Global Healthcare Investing Conference (IBF Conferences), Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit, The Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Conference, and the 3 Rivers Venture Fair.
“The ultimate measure of successful biosciences business development is the amount of venture capital dollars flowing into a region,” said Baiju R. Shah, President & CEO of BioEnterprise. “By marketing the significant resources contained in the “Biosciences Tech Belt” region, we have increased interest among national venture investors in both of our geographies. Year one indicates our strategy is sound.”
John W. Manzetti, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse said, “We have seen our partnership grow to the point where the venture firms think of one of us when visiting the other. Through our efforts, we have created a successful mindshare and we are pleased to see the significant potential for an increased flow of capital into our combined region. This clustering is working and our combined portfolio companies will benefit from the increased deal flow.”
The “Biosciences Tech Belt” initiative is part of a larger “Tech Belt” initiative designed to link the synergistic resources of the Pittsburgh and Cleveland region across all industries. The PLSG-BioEnterprise collaboration is the first initiative towards the broader “Tech Belt” effort.
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