ABOUT THE FUND
Vision 2020 Funds was launched in 2006, created in the mold of the nation's top venture firms to capitalize on the unique resources of the North Florida region.
Regional venture capital funds have long enjoyed symbiotic relationships with dynamic cities, generating high returns on investment while helping businesses and communities to grow and th
rive.
Such funds fueled the growth and success of regions such as Silicon Valley in California, the Research Triangle in North Carolina and the Route 128 corridor centered in Boston, Mass.
Our Vision is for North Florida to enjoy such growth and innovation that by 2020, its research assets will compete with America's top technology hubs for business, capital and talent.
Our Mission is to identify and support profitable enterprises that will drive technological innovations and enable new business paradigms.
To help Vision 2020 take flight, Leon County awarded a $725,000 business development grant for the Fund's administrative needs. This support helps the Fund maximize its staked capital by freeing up more dollars for investment in high-tech ventures
Welcome to the New World of Innovation
Few places in the world are as well-positioned for success, with such high potential for growth and prosperity, as the North Florida region.
Blessed with more than 300 days of sunshine a year, the region surrounding Tallahassee, FL; enjoys a low cost of living, ample available land, and crucially, one of the best-educated populations in the nation.
A 2002 new economy index study shows of the 66 largest U.S. and Florida cities, Gainesville and Tallahassee ranked as the top two cities nationally for workforce educational attainment, beating out such cities as Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Denver.
The region around Tallahassee is home to three major research universities: Florida State University and Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University in Tallahassee itself and the University of Florida in Gainesville. These world-class research centers receive billions of dollars each year in research grants from public and private sources, and their scientists and engineers regularly make discoveries that transform our world and present exciting commercial applications.
To date, only a fraction of these tech-transferred business enterprises have put down roots in the region; many innovations have been discovered here but exploited commercially elsewhere. But the dawn of the 21st Century finds the North Florida region poised to capture and capitalize on the benefits of these discoveries and begins finally accumulating business brawn to match its intellectual heft.
The region ranks second in the nation for Internet bandwidth capacity, and Gainesville and Tallahassee again rank No. 1 and 2 in science and engineering degrees earned each year per capita. Currently, many of these graduate students move on to larger cities with larger economies to build careers, homes and businesses. But with targeted investment and hard work, the region has tremendous assets that will attract young researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs to stay and achieve a new vision for North Florida.
Successful examples prove it is possible to make important discoveries, and huge financial gains, here in North Florida. The anti-cancer drug Taxol was isolate at the Chemistry Department of Florida State University, earning more than a billion dollars for FSU, pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb, and its discoverer, Dr. Robert Holton. With his royalty earnings, Holton founded Taxalog, as start-up biotech firm based in Tallahassee, devoted to developing new drugs to fight and defeat cancer.
Famously in 1965, University of Florida researchers developed Gatorade, which has since propelled athletic accomplishment all over the world. Each year, UF licenses dozens of new technologies in diverse fields spanning the gamut from gene therapy and environmental engineering to software development and agriculture.
For several years, economic growth in North Florida has steadily built steam, and economists predict the region's economy needs only a few more key businesses to reach critical mass. The result will be an innovative explosion of self-fueling start-ups that will build upon and benefit from each other as a dynamic cluster of research and design firms.
As more recent graduates are able to find exciting, high-paying jobs close to the universities, they will be able to collaborate with faculty and students, as well as private sector colleagues, creating synergy beyond the sum of the parts.
Instead of being a donor region where young people are reared and educated before moving to larger, more prosperous cities and building national and global business as it is for raising families and building homes.
With an education population base, established universities and research centers, well-managed infrastructure and high quality of life, North Florida's potential for growth and prosperity is unequaled. Vision2020 LLC will drive that growth, and our investors will benefit from the ride.
