The Connecticut Bull Run Has Begun… 🐂
Wrapping up 2023, I’m again drafting my top 10 list of what I’m most grateful for at Connecticut Innovations. Simply practicing gratitude gives me hope for our future in Connecticut and beyond. I strongly believe commercializing science and technology will improve our lives and our planet. Life-enhancing drugs, climate-restoring technologies and assisted knowledge (AI) are coming to market bigger and faster than ever before. While I’m also deeply concerned about how some tech advances are affecting our most vulnerable populations, I’ll leave those thoughts for my “not grateful list” and another day.
So, here are some highlights from 2023:
1. CI generated proceeds of $33M this year. In a year when most venture-backed companies are struggling to stay afloat, several of our portfolio company teams found buyers hungry to expand their growth by adding Connecticut talent and products. Congratulations to Avitus Orthopaedics, Populi, a Definitive Healthcare company, CoolIT Systems and DiA Imaging Analysis (acquired by Philips). I was especially proud of the CoolIT team. They are fighting climate change with their liquid cooling technology, which lowers GHG emissions and costs for data centers and server facilities, and they increased their company value from $6M (when I first invested in 2010) to $277M this past summer in an acquisition by KKR. Also, a big shout-out to Neil Shah and Maxim Budyansky, who moved to Connecticut from Johns Hopkins to develop a minimally invasive surgical tool in the middle of a decade-long medical devices market swoon—they never quit, never stopped innovating, and had a great exit to Zimmer Biomet. Their product is now used by hundreds of surgeons across the country.
2. On the value creation side, CI’s Innovation Lab worked with Comptroller Sean Scanlon to implement Intellihealth for our state employees, allowing about 2,000 people in the first three months to have access to the GLP-1 drugs (i.e., Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy and less well known alternatives) and lifestyle/behavioral interventions that help stem diabetes, obesity and other weight-related illnesses.
3. Our angel investment community is taking off. Under Marty Isaac’s leadership, the Angel Investor Forum (AIF) has rapidly expanded and has 50-plus active investors attending their monthly events. The Tidal River Women's Investor Group Fund, led by Galia Gichon and Chris McGarry Gelnaw, now boasts a network of more than 200 women, and they’ve just launched a $1M fund. Furthermore, Connecticut’s angel tax credits in FY23 were fully reserved, with $19M going into 48 companies.
Check out who else made our nice list here: https://lnkd.in/eGXsQs3A
