TechTown Venture Fund has been established with the intent of $10 million in capitalization to be used to fund local start-ups.
Excerpt:
"This is about making money. It’s not just about doing something for
Wayne State or for the city of Detroit," said Joseph Alam, who will run
the fund.
Alam is chairman of Mid-States Capital L.L.C.,
an investment-banking firm he founded in 1995. He recently moved his
company from Grosse Pointe Farms into temporary offices on the fifth
floor at TechTown while a 2,000-square foot office is built on the
ground floor.
"We see a lot of high-value technology here and no
local funds taking advantage of it," Alam said. "We’ve got individuals
with good technology at Wayne State flying out to California to talk to
venture capitals there. Greg Auner just got back from California. They
told him if he moves out there, they’ll give him funding. We have to
compete with that."
Auner, the director of the Smart Sensors and Integrated Microsystems program in WSU’s engineering school, has 26 patents issued or pending and a startup company located in TechTown, Visca L.L.C.
Read the entire
Crain's Detroit Business article
here.
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