Investors

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 has been providing capital and other resources to advanced technology and high growth companies in New York State since 1994. CVF focuses on providing guidance and 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.

Located in Ithaca, New York, Cayuga Venture Fund's 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.


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.

Based in Rochester, New York, Excell Partners focus on the tremendous research base that 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.


Onondaga Venture Capital Fund (OVCF) invests in Central New York businesses that offer a potential for future growth. Based Syracuse,New York, OVCF was founded in 1985 by seventy experienced New York investors. 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.


Rand Capital Corporation is a registered, closed-end management investment company investing in the securities of businesses that offer unique opportunities for growth. Based in Buffalo, New York and founded in 1969, 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.

 

Seed Capital Fund of CNY is an Angel Investment group whose members invest in and guide early stage technology companies in Central and Upstate New York. Based in Syracuse with over 40 active members and mentors, SCF-CNY's goal is to create wealth for investors and assist the regions transition to a high-tech, high-growth economy.