By Evan Vitale
It was a short week due to the holiday, but there were a few stories that were making the rounds in the world of venture capital recently.
According to the Cincinnati Business Courier, a Cleveland venture capital firm has made two big investments in Cincinnati startup companies, with several more on the way.
JumpStart just closed its $20 million NEXT Fund. It has already made eight investments out of that fund, including two in Greater Cincinnati, after holding a first close of the fund a little more than a year ago. It didn’t announce any of those deals until now. Its first two Cincinnati investments were in tech startups Lisnr and Enosix.
The full story is here: http://bit.ly/2c0DPXy
An interesting piece in The Wall Street Journal focuses on venture capital firm In-Q-Tel Inc. Have you heard of it? The VC firm in Virginia is funded by the Central Intelligence Agency. Yes, the CIA. Yes, THAT CIA.
Forterra Systems Inc., a California startup focused on virtual reality, was in need of money and its products didn’t have much commercial appeal. Then funds came in from a source based far from Silicon Valley: In-Q-Tel Inc., a venture-capital firm in Virginia funded by the Central Intelligence Agency.
One catalyst for the 2007 infusion, according to a former Forterra executive and others familiar with it, was a recommendation by a man who sat on the board of the venture-capital firm—and also on the board of Forterra.
In-Q-Tel pumped in cash, Forterra developed some tools useful to the military, and government contracts started coming in.
Read the rest of the storm here: http://on.wsj.com/2c9nvSY
