This EDA investment funds the launch NY #investlocal scale up project, to identify, support, and invest in high-growth, scalable companies that can transform the local economy through job and wealth…

This $3 million EDA Project Grant funds Launch New York, Inc.'s Launch NY #InvestLocal Scale Up project. The project aims to identify, support, and invest in high-growth, scalable companies that can transform the local economy through job and wealth creation in 27 upstate New York counties. It will optimize follow-on capital investments to 80 existing portfolio companies and make new first-time investments. The project will advance Launch NY's financing programs, including recapitalizing its nonprofit seed fund and building a second limited partner fund while harvesting the first fund's portfolio. It also aims to grow Launch NY's investor network from 200 to 500 members to support ongoing transactions and deal-by-deal investment participation. The EDA award falls under the BUILD TO SCALE program (CFDA #11.024), which provides funding to grow technology-based economic development ecosystems where entrepreneurs can build and scale technology-driven businesses.

This EDA investment funds the launch NY #investlocal scale up project, to identify, support, and invest in high-growth, scalable companies that can transform the local economy through job and wealth creation, and catalyze the entrepreneurial culture in the 27 counties comprising the western half of upstate new york. The project will optimize the deployment of a mix of follow-on capital investments to the current portfolio of 80 companies, while continuing to make new first-time investments and optimize a mix of its remaining first-time company investments and follow-on funding for the current for-profit LP fund i portfolio of 52 companies, yielding a final 9 investments, while establishing a new LP fund II. Once completed, the project is designed to advance each of LNY's financing programs to the next phase of growth in order to meet demand and maximize impact and sustainability in the project region by: a) recapitalizing its nonprofit seed fund, while optimizing the mix of first-time and follow-on investment from this fund to facilitate achieving evergreen status, b) building and deploying its second limited partner fund, while harvesting the portfolio from its first limited partner fund, and c) growing its investor network beyond its pilot phase of 200 investors to 500 to yield new members to support ongoing transactions and more deal-by-deal investment participation among its members.