Michigan pre-seeds with $6.8m

The board of Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF), created by the state of Michigan in 1984 to promote economic growth, has given $6.8m to Invest Michigan, a non-profit based in Detroit, to support companies near commercial viability. To be eligible, companies must be developing a product in the areas of either advanced automotive, manufacturing and materials, agricultural technology, alternative energy, homeland security and defense, information technology, life sciences or other innovative technologies. 

The Michigan Pre-Seed Fund 2.0 will be made up of $5.8m to invest into companies and $1m allocated to the University Commercialisation Fund to help universities transfer technology to the marketplace. The total amount was made available through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the state’s marketing arm and advocate for economic growth. Paula Sorrell, MEDC vice-president of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, will join the Invest Michigan board as an observer.

The fund follows MSF’s February 2014 incentives that are expected to generate up to $362m in capital investment and create a total of 1,444 jobs in Michigan. As it has done with its other tech-targeted funding programs, MEDC is hoping to leverage at least $8 in private investment for every MSF dollar invested.

Sorrell said: “These pre-seed funds are intended to help innovative companies take those last steps to become commercially viable and more attractive to private investors,” Sorrell said. “With the wealth of entrepreneurial talent we have in Michigan, we want to make sure good ideas turn into businesses that help expand and strengthen the state economy.”