11 Jul Wisconsin got more venture capital deals in 2015 but amount invested fell
By Rick Romell & Kathleen Gallagher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
At least 128 state companies raised more than $209 million of angel and venture capital in 2015, with the results indicating what the president of the Wisconsin Technology Council described as a generally improving picture for early-stage financing.
“I think most of the trends here are quite good,” said Tom Still of the council, which puts together the annual accounting.
Angel and venture financing marks an important measure of how well a state is doing at growing high-potential companies, and Wisconsin’s record has been mediocre at best.
Last year saw the total amount of angel and venture capital invested here drop by $137 million. But that was largely because 2014 was an outlier, with a whopping $127 million provided to a single company, Shine Medical Technologies, a Monona firm aiming to make medical isotopes.
Setting aside the Shine financing, total investment last year in Wisconsin companies was down about $9 million from 2014, and well above the levels of the previous five years.
Still noted that the number of firms receiving investments was 13% greater than in 2014. Read more …