Start ups: Indiana Venture Capital

Some slightly delayed business news from The Indianapolis Business Journal:

BioCrossroads is setting the stage to create Indiana Future Fund II, an effort that would raise tens of millions of dollars for speculation on promising Hoosier life science companies.

Indiana Future Fund I launched five years ago with $73 million. About four-fifths of that now has been committed to life science firms, and about half the money actually has been paid out.

Officials with BioCrossroads, Indiana’s life science initiative, declined to discuss a second fund, saying Securities and Exchange Commission rules limit what they can disclose.

But in December representatives of Switzerland-based Credit Suisse Group, which manages the first fund, told the board of the Indiana Public Employees’ Retirement Fund—one of the fund’s investors—that they planned to craft a sequel in the near future. Credit Suisse investment banker Mike Arpey could not be reached for comment by IBJ. But from the inception of the groundbreaking first fund, Credit Suisse aspired to launch a second. “There is a reason why this is called Indiana Future Fund I,” Arpey said five years ago. “It’s not Indiana Future Fund, end of story.”

BioCrossroads CEO David Johnson called the first fund a success—both for the investors and for Indiana companies that used the money to stoke their growth.

“When we first started talking about all this, what we were lacking was enough resources focused on early company formation,” Johnson said. “I think we’ve been able to establish the fact there are companies worth investing in Indiana.”