Surrounded by examples of past technological achievements at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, more than 100 scientists, entrepreneurs, financiers, and public officials heard Senator Chuck Schumer announce the September 26 kickoff of the Long Island Emerging Technology Fund. With an initial investment of $500,000 from two Long Island investment firms — Canrock Ventures (led by Mark Fasciano) and Jove Equity Partners (led by David Calone) — the fund will be used to create technology companies commercializing inventions from Long Island’s top research institutions.
The announcement was made during opening remarks at the second technology showcase sponsored by Accelerate Long Island, an initiative launched by Senator Schumer and Brookhaven Town Supervisor Mark Lesko to create businesses and jobs from scientific advances made at Long Island Institutions including Brookhaven Lab, Stony Brook University, Hofstra University, North Shore-LIJ Health System, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The first showcase was held at Brookhaven Lab on August 15th.
The fund will provide seed money for the creation of a dozen or more companies over the next two to three years based on technologies developed by the Accelerate Long Island institutions, Schumer said. He added that he hopes the fund will grow to $1 million by early 2012. Read more