Connecticut Tech Development Agency Invests $20.8 Million in 61 Companies

The state-funded Connecticut Innovations agency, invested in IT, biotech and clean tech startups last year.

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(TNS) -- Connecticut Innovations, the state-funded, quasi-public technology development agency, invested in 61 companies for a total of $20.8 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, the agency reported Monday. CI also made loans to 18 companies and gave small grants to 114.

In all, 177 different companies received assistance.

The investments were typically venture-fund-type deals, in which CI would be repaid if the company were later sold or taken public. Just over half of those deals were in information technology, and 46 percent were in bioscience. Clean technology had a $486,000 investment, or 3 percent of the pie.

The agency includes the former Connecticut Development Authority, and therefore also makes loans to companies not considered technology businesses. Of $11.4 million in loans, 70 percent went to manufacturers.

The agency's innovation programs include awards, grants to pay professionals, subsidies for interns' salaries and funding CTNext, which includes co-working spaces and mentoring. It spent $3.2 million on those programs.

The agency also noted that the state spent $59.4 million on Jackson Laboratory for Genomics Medicine in Farmington, and that the state gave up $1.9 million in taxes in order to encourage $7.8 million in angel investments in state firms.

©2015 The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


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