Companies preparing to compete for private equity capital at the state, regional or national level should attend the second annual Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, Oct. 30-31 at Madison’s Monona Terrace Convention Center.

Up to 60 early-stage companies from Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest will be professionally “coached” by venture and service professionals, as well as veteran company executives with stories to tell. The symposium will also feature the return of the “Elevator Pitch Olympics,” a 2005 conference hit that allows brief investor presentations for selected companies from all technology sectors.

Companies wishing to participate in VentureQuest or the Elevator Pitch Olympics can apply online here.

Now entering its fourth year as one of the country’s premier business plan contests, the mission of the Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest (BPC) is to encourage entrepreneurs in the creation, start-up and early-growth stages of high-tech businesses in Wisconsin.

Since 2004, more than 700 entries have been received, contestants have been awarded more than $500,000 in seed capital and services, nearly 60 percent of the finalists received financing since participating, and the top two place-winners from the 2005 contest alone, Mithridion and AquaSensors, have since attracted nearly $2 million in private equity financing.

Add to that list of accomplishments two completed rounds of financing worth more than $1 million and the announcement that one firm has been awarded two federal research grants. That’s the latest news from Nerites, NovaScan LLC and Mithridion, all former BPC contestants and all recipients of financing in August 2006.

Peak Ridge Capital Group has announced an early- stage fund that will emphasize investments in life sciences and information technology in Wisconsin and surrounding Midwest states.

Avolte Venture Partners Midwest, which will expand its office in Madison, is a Sector Fund of the Peak Ridge Capital Group Inc. Peak Ridge is a Boston firm recently formed through the merger of Avolte LLC, a boutique investment firm focusing on early- stage investments, and a prominent international private equity group.

The fund is strictly targeting investments in Wisconsin and the Midwest and expects to make initial investments in the $1 million to $3 million range while averaging between two and three deals per year during the fund’s investment phase. It is further expected that about half of its investments will involve life science firms, with the rest in information technology.

• FierceBiotech. com, a national bio-technology e- newsletter, identified Wisconsin as one of five regions in the world with the most aggressive initiatives to attract biotech companies. The other four were California, Massachusetts, Singapore and New Jersey.



• According to a report issued by the American Electronics Association, (AeA) Wisconsin ranks third in the nation in electromedical equipment manufacturing employment with 6,400 jobs.



• Also according to the AeA, high-tech workers in Wisconsin earned an average wage of $56,000, or 64 percent more than Wisconsin’s average private sector wage.

• In 2005, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) ranked the Medical College of Wisconsin 45th among the nation's medical schools for NIH research funding amounting to $87.3 million.

Understanding that high-tech communities around Wisconsin have needs unique to the geographic regions in which they are located, WIN strives to tailor its meetings, conferences and workshops accordingly.

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