Virginia
State Resources
The state’s economic development authority is the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), created in 1995. VEDP’s mission is to “encourage the expansion and diversification of Virginia’s economy,” in collaboration with local, regional, and state stakeholders. To accomplish this, VEDP carries out a range of efforts in areas such as business retention, expansion, and attraction; trade development; marketing and lead generation; business intelligence; competitive benchmarking; site development; performance-based incentives; and talent solutions. The Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA), created by the state legislature in 2020, performs complementary work, whose purpose is to “support the life cycle of innovation, from translational research; to entrepreneurship; to pre-seed and seed-stage funding; as well as acceleration, growth, and commercialization, resulting in the creation of new jobs and company formation.” The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) is the nonprofit operations arm of VIPA. Highlighted below is a sample of VEDP and VIPA/VIPC activities supporting new ventures in the state.
Virginia Catalyst Grant Funding
Overseen by VIPC, Virginia Catalyst is a nonprofit created by the Virginia State legislature and funded by the state’s General Fund and 7 public research universities. Its mission is to advance economic development in the state by promoting commercialization of novel technologies that seek to improve human health. Virginia Catalyst’s grant program offers awards of $200,000– $800,000 to fund development and commercialization activities for life sciences projects over a 12–18-month period. The purpose of the program is to accelerate life sciences technology commercialization by encouraging partnerships between two or more Virginia research university investigators and a private enterprise and to attract follow-on funding from other sources to create jobs and economic growth in the state. To be eligible, projects must also:
- Focus on bioinformatics, medical informatics, point of care diagnostics, or drug discovery and delivery
- Obtain 1:1 matching funds.
In recent years, there have been 1-2 funding rounds per year, with 3-4 projects awarded in each (see history of awards). Most private enterprise awardees are small businesses.
Virginia Venture Partners (VVP)
VIPC’s venture capital program Virginia Venture Partners (VVP) invests in the state’s technology, cybersecurity, life sciences, energy, and aerospace startups through early-stage grants ($50,000 per award), convertible notes (up to $150,000), and direct pre-seed (up to $250,000) and seed-stage investments ($500,000–$1 million). The solicitation schedule is quarterly. The required ratio of matching funds varies by award type. Filter VIPC’s portfolio by program to see examples of companies funded by VVP.
