Attracting Pittsburgh's Money

One way to judge a region's economic future is to look and see whether money from elsewhere is being invested there. It used to be that investors were reluctant to bet on Northeast Ohio's early stage companies. Thanks to the work of BioEnterprise, JumpStart, the NEOinc incubators and many others, that is no longer the case.

Not only are Northeast Ohio companies attracting capital from outside the region, increasingly venture capitalists are opening offices here so they can get in on the action. The latest example is www.inetworksllc.com, which operates a $100 million BioOpportunity Fund. Based out of Pittsburgh, iNetworks this month opened an office in Cleveland's Midtown Neighborhood. Here is what iNetworkshad to say about their decision to open an office in Northeast Ohio:

The Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University and the thriving life sciences community in Cleveland and the rest of Ohio are dynamically moving forward the development and commercialization of cutting-edge life science technologies based in Ohio. iNetworks is excited to be part of this emergence, by investing in companies located in Ohio and participating in the relocation of companies seeking to be near the outstanding resources and world-class medical and scientific personnel in Ohio.

Pradeep Khosla, Managing Director-Technology for iNetworks and also Dean of the College of Engineering at
Carnegie Mellon University, said “Cleveland is one of the geographic regions poised to succeed with the convergence of two areas of historic strength, healthcare on the one hand and information technology and other forms of engineering on the other. This convergence is where we see Cleveland and other parts of Ohio succeeding in the life science technology field.