The New York City Economic Development Corporation has partnered with Celgene, GE Ventures and Eli Lilly to create a biotech fund called the Life Sciences Funding Initiative.
The city will put in $50 million and says by leveraging at least that amount in matching funds, the partnership will deploy a minimum of $100 million and seek to launch 15 to 20 biotech ventures by 2020.
NYCEDC says a selection process is underway to identify the initiative’s anchor venture capital partners, which will be selected by the city. The city will make its selections in early 2014 and expects the Life Sciences Funding Initiative to make its first investments in mid-2014.
Earlier this year the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) acquired the landmark Kiernan Plaza in downtown Albany, NY, in a bid to create a hub for smart cities technology companies. The $30-million CNSE-led initiative, identified as a priority project by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Capital Region Economic Development Council (CREDC), will position New York as a global leader in this high-tech industry, Cuomo says.