Venture Capital in Alabama

A consortium of businesses and investment firms, along with UAB Health Services Foundation and the University of Alabama are creating a $25 million venture capital fund in Alabama.

If Alabama isn't on the top of your list of "venture ready" states, there's a group forming that aims to prove you wrong.

The Technology Fund Management is pulling together $25 million for a venture capital fund to create a competitor to North Carolina's Research Triangle.

The fund is available for technology-based companies that plan on staying in Alabama. Investments are limited to $1 million per company. With the burst of growth in businesses springing from the Alabama university system, The Technology Fund Management Co. LLC expects to be doing booming business with venture capital in Alabama very soon.

It is rare to see a fund that reaches across business, government and education with the goal to economically benefit an area. But Silicon Valley did it; the Research Triangle did it; Austin did it. There is no reason in the world why Birmingham, Alabama, can't do it.

This venture capital in Alabama incentive is likely to bring Birmingham into the national spotlight. Known as being a sleepy, Southern town, it may soon become a booming technology corridor.

The commercialization of intellectual property coming out of research institutions is big business. One of the most common difficulties is getting funding to propel discoveries into companies. Often, venture capital dollars are all that is available for what many perceive as risky propositions.

Larry Greer, whose Greer Financial Advisors is managing the new fund, said having a venture fund of this magnitude is an element Birmingham has lacked as it attempts to spawn new companies.

"You can't ever have enough capital," Greer said. "We have the technology in abundance. Capital has always been the constraint here."

Venture capital in Alabama is now well on its way. We wish them success.