innovate arkansas

Venture capitalists from Arkansas and seven other states are at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce today and tomorrow to hear about potential investment opportunities in medical technologies developed at Arkansas universities.

Researchers are being given an opportunity to showcase their technologies as part of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences BioVentures Private Equity Roundtable. BioVentures Director Michael G. Douglas said this is the first year that the annual event has invited students to hear technology presentations in the hope that they will form business plans and compete in the Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup.

In addition to UAMS, the roundtable included the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Arkansas State University.

"In the majority of cases, there are not companies formed but there are raw technologies that have commercial potential," he said. "No one else does it the way we're doing it here. It really is a great opportunity for the risk capital community to see technologies very early on and for entrepreneurs and student entrepreneurs to see what the reaction of the investment community is to the initial idea."

During a lunch break Thursday, Douglas said investors had shown some interest in several of the technologies.

Stephen Snowdy, a partner with MB Venture Partners of Memphis, said he has followed technologies in Arkansas for the past three years.

"We have seen a few things here that with further incubation would be attractive investment opportunities," Snowdy said. "The effort here is fledgling, but the biotech community is maturing and growing up. I think we'll see more investment opportunities over time."

And that's exactly what the state's economic development leaders want to hear.

"We have to be involved in the early stages of product innovation. ... That's what creates knowledge-based jobs," said Tim McFarland, a member of Accelerate Arkansas, a group of business and education leaders working to help Arkansas achieve parity with the U.S. in average per capita income. The group works toward that goal by promoting a competitive, knowledge-based economy in Arkansas.