New York City Launches Venture Capital Fund
New York City has always been a trail blazer in the urban planning environment. The news that New York has launched a venture capital fund just proves it once again.
The Big Apple is the home to a great many things. Start up companies is not one that most would think of. The high prices in the city are simply not conducive to launching a start-up. The Mayor of New York City, Bloomberg, seems to realize as much, yet knows that bringing in a new business niche is important to keeping the city moving forward.
With this in mind, Mayor Bloomberg just announced the launching of a venture capital fund by the city. It will invest in companies that are based in the city and focused ostensibly on technology developments. Indeed, Bloomberg is a well known billionaire who made his money in the information data field before there was an internet.
The size of the fund is mildly disappointing. It will come in at $22 million the first year. A division of the city will supply three million of the funding while FirstMark Capital will put in another nineteen million. FirstMark is a venture capital investment firm that is based in New York City, which makes it a perfect match for the city. Whether the fund grows in size or not in future years is yet to be determined.
So, what can we make of all this? Well, I have to give kudos to Mayor Bloomberg. Once again, he has come up with an out of the box idea to generate business in the city he oversees. The Big Apple is known for its innovation and advances in green building applications and codes. The effort to introduce a tech start up industry to the city is just one more example of how New York City is not resting on its laurels, but is doing all it can to stay ahead of other leading municipalities in the world. If you are based in New York City and looking for funding, this is one fund worth taking a look at.