InternetCoast is launching an information portal that will provide analysis and insights on innovation and technology-driven job creation and economic growth on a statewide and local level. The first report in the portal is a detailed report on venture capital investment in Florida.
The new Florida Innovation Highlights portal will be a tool to stimulate dialogue to better understand our innovation ecosystem, its impact on the competitiveness of industries, and opportunities to leverage innovation to stimulate job creation and economic growth, says Dale Gregory, executive director of InternetCoast, a nonprofit founded in 1999.
"InternetCoast has developed a set of quantitative indicators to compare Florida's relative strengths and weaknesses to regions that are recognized as being the best in class for a particular indicator or group of indicators," says Gregory, in a press release. The indicators will be compiled using secondary data from a wide range of sources. Benchmarking will be based on absolute numerical results and a normalizing scale that takes into account differences in population and economics, he says.
Data categories will include financing, including angel and venture capital; R&D spending; STEM job activity; economic impact of the commercialization of intellectual property; technology industry business activity, and technology and biotechnology infrastructure.
As the first part of this new information portal, Venture Capital Highlights details Florida venture capital investment activity at the local level. The report includes a snapshot of deal and investment activity by industry sector and stage of development for the five years ended December 2013 and first quarter 2014.
Report Findings for 2013 include:
- * 1.4 percent of U.S. venture capital investments, the best since 2009
- * $425 million invested in 49 deals, the best year since 2007
- * Florida compared to other States: 11th based on total venture capital investment, best ranking since 2009, 26th based on per capita investment, best ranking since 2009.
- * Software sector captured 46 percent of total investment
- * South Florida businesses received $285 million or 67 percent of total Florida investment
- * 61% of investments were in later stage companies
View the full Venture Capital Highlights Report at: http://www.icoast.com/4flinnovation/venture-capital-highlights/
More will be coming to the Information Highlights portal, Gregory says. In the meantime, you can check out its Business Opportunities portal on icoast.com, which is loaded with funding opportunities for seed/startup, early stage and R&D. The Resources portal contains useful website links and drill-down information on international trade.