| New green in the valleys
Virginia Business
April 2004
Carilion
Health System and the Virginia Tech Foundation have
created a private equity/venture capital fund and investment
consortium to funnel $55 million in business capital
to companies that initiate business or re-locate operations
to the Roanoke and New River valleys.
The Valleys Investment Consortium will include not just
Carilion and Virginia Tech — the two largest employers
in the Roanoke area — but also six other investment
groups, including Harbert Venture Partners in Richmond,
Third Security in Radford and Winston Partners Group
in McLean.
“We'll make investments that we think are
prudent to make,” says Edward Murphy, CEO of Carilion
Health System. “But the analysis will require
a business plan presentation, and it will be a very
structured, formal review.”
For entrepreneurs with no experience performing market
analysis or putting together business plans, both Carilion
and Tech are prepared to provide information, resources
and advice. “We're more than willing to
help them along,” Murphy says. “So people
who just have good ideas can come to us and we'll
review them from the ground up.”
Carilion and the Tech Foundation, which each put $5
million into the venture, expect that additional private
investors will invest up to $8 million more into the
fund, bringing the consortium's investment potential
to over $60 million.
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