Advantage Capital Partners is an innovative group of venture capital partnerships with more than $800 million under management. Founded in 1992, the firm has grown to include offices in Missouri, Louisiana, New York, Texas, Florida and Washington, D.C., with affiliated offices in Alabama, Colorado and Wisconsin.

From the start, Advantage has raised private funds to invest in states and communities that are underserved by traditional sources of risk capital. The firm has built a strong and successful track record of public-private partnerships with state and federal economic development organizations, facilitating the flow of billions of dollars of investment capital into these communities.

Advantage provides equity and debt capital, along with value-added counsel and other support, to promising operating businesses that have the potential for excellent investor returns as well as significant community impact. The firm uses this dual bottom line to measure its success.

 

Cayuga Venture Fund , based in Ithaca, New York, has been providing capital and other resources to advanced technology and high growth companies in New York State since 1994. With the late 2005 launch of our third fund, we will continue to provide these resources to companies commercializing high value technologies, particularly those generated at Cornell University. CVF's primary investment focus is early stage and follow on rounds of financing in technology-based companies with high growth potential in upstate New York or those that have a significant Cornell connection.

Our proximity to and relationships within Cornell as well as with other research centers in upstate New York has provided CVF with a decade's worth of exceptional and lucrative investment opportunities. This is driven by Cornell's outstanding research funding record in both the State of New York and in the country (ranking No. 1 in New York and No. 10 in the US overall in 2003) along with the associated intellectual talent and skilled workforce resources of upstate New York. Due in part to significant CVF investments and the commitment to economic development of several area organizations, Ithaca has become a vibrant entrepreneurial community home to many successful high technology start-up companies.

Our team has significant expertise and extensive access to resources in areas such as telecommunications, datacommunications, semiconductor manufacturing, advanced materials processing and manufacturing, information management, biotechnology, life sciences and nanotechnology. This provides entrepreneurs with a broad base of support to assist in the development of their market-defining products and breakthrough technologies.

 

Excell Partners, Inc. is a unique regional economic development partnership established in cooperation with the University of Rochester and the State of New York to manage a state-supported fund which provides pre-seed and seed stage financing to high-tech start-up companies in the Upstate New York region.

Because of the high risks inherent in very early stage investing, few venture funds make seed investments, particularly in this region. Yet a tremendous research base exists in Upstate NY which generates commercializable technologies. Excell Partners is positioned to tap into this research base, help identify promising technologies, and accelerate the creation of new technology-based businesses which offer high potential for commercial success. In particular, we provide the financing necessary to launch these companies and link them with the critical services, mentoring, and follow-on capital they need to become self-sustaining businesses.

The mission of the fund is to support regional economic development by bridging the pre-seed and seed stage funding gap in Upstate NY while generating sufficient returns so that, over time, the fund becomes self-sustaining.

 

Syracuse basedOnondaga Venture Capital Fund (OVCF) invests in Central New York businesses that offer a potential for future growth. Originally founded in 1985 by seventy experienced New York investor, OVCF seeks investment opportunities with early stage companies that have the potential for tremendous growth. The fund invests across a broad spectrum of industries with an emphasis on high potential technology-based ventures.

 

Founded in 1969, Rand Capital Corporation Rand Capital Corporation is a registered, closed-end management investment company investing in the securities of businesses that offer unique opportunities for growth. Rand Capital provides venture capital and management experience to support the growth and development of businesses in varied industries, primarily in the Western New York and Upstate New York region.

Headquartered in Buffalo, New York, Rand presently manages a diversified portfolio of approximately $13,000,000 and has an additional $7,000,000 available to invest.

Rand Capital Corporation believes in the future of Western New York and is actively seeking out investment opportunities. If you are currently seeking financing for your business, or are aware of a business that is, please contact us. Together, we can continue to make Western New York prosper.

 

Seed Capital Fund of CNY members invets in and guide early stage technology companies in Syracuse and Central/Upstate New York. Our goal is to create wealth for investors and assist the regions transition to a high-tech, high-growth economy.