CLEVELAND – Tim Biro, Managing Director of the Ohio Innovation Fund, thinks the investment climate in Ohio is significantly better than it was when he and his partners first created the $12.5 million fund in 1997.

?A lot of academic institutions have put a lot of effort into making tech transfer work better,?? he said. ?Those institutions also have filed a lot of patents. They?re also building teams and staff around those functions.?

Biro said Ohio had a lot of dollars coming in from federal and state agencies, including the federal Small Business Innovation Research grants. He said these changes have made a more efficient mechanism in Ohio for starting companies that become platforms for technology licensing.

?All these changes have made it better for early stage startups in Ohio,?? Biro said. ?But Ohio remains an under served market capital wise.?

Certainly, the Ohio Innovation Fund has been thriving in this new pro-investment climate in Ohio. The fund has made nine investments, primarily in northeast Ohio, in life sciences and health care (30 percent), information technology and software (50 percent), as well as advanced materials (20 percent). Most of those investments were made primarily in 2000 and 2001, although the last one was done about 18 months ago, he said.

There increasingly is a lot of deal flow in Ohio in all three market segments, Biro said. For example, Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve are big in life sciences, while Case Western, the University of Akron, Kent State and Ohio State universities do a lot of research in advanced materials.

?We look at commercialization,?? he said. ?We do a lot of licensing agreements as well to get access to disruptive technology. But we like it better if the company is already formed and we can help bring in new management.?

Biro said none of the investments in his portfolio have failed and two companies have merged with other companies, providing the fund with a couple of exits. There are no plans right now to create a second Ohio Innovation Fund he said. But he does have a business relationship with another group to raise funds for investing in early stage technology beyond Ohio, but within the Midwest.

?In two months,? he said, ?we?ll have some big news to announce.?