Schumer Kicks Off 'Stay in New York' Jobs Program with Accelerate Li, Linking Research Centers with Local Investors; Will Announce Major Funding Secured that Could Launch Over a Dozen New Businesses on Long Island

Press Release

United States Senator Charles E. Schumer kicked off his "Stay in New York" jobs program with Accelerate Long Island today with a major announcement that $500,000 in immediate seed funding has been secured from Canrock Ventures and Jove Equity Partners that could help launch up to a dozen local companies over the next two to three years, commercializing early stage technologies developed from Long Island's big five research centers. Announced in May, Schumer's "Stay in New York" jobs program, in partnership with Accelerate Long Island, is designed to bring technologies developed on Long Island to market by introducing patent holders to investors for the purposes of commercialization on the Island to spur local job growth.

"We have all the ingredients for success right here on Long Island: cutting edge technologies developed at top-notch research institutions, skilled entrepreneurs seeking new business ventures, and private investors willing to finance exciting new ventures," said Schumer. "These key ingredients are a recipe for successful job growth on Long Island. Stay in New York and Accelerate will ensure Long Island can capitalize locally on all of the business assets that are right at our fingertips."

Schumer originally reached out to Brookhaven National Laboratory in May, requesting that the lab conduct an inventory of readily available patents to identify those with the greatest potential to go to market for the purposes of promoting them to potential investors and entrepreneurs on Long Island. After the inventory was complete and published, Accelerate Long Island, Jove Equity Partners, and Canrock Ventures held a series of business mentoring sessions for local scientists and Brookhaven patent holders to help pitch patents at a Stay in New York/Accelerate business development opportunity conference to investors and local entrepreneurs. The conference took place in August and today's kickoff represents a major expansion of the program and will include technologies and patents developed at Cold Spring Harbor, Stony Brook, Hofstra, and the Feinstein Institute.

The $500,000 investment by Canrock Ventures and Jove Equity Partners will establish the Long Island Emerging Technologies Fund (LIET) to provide seed stage investment to create more than a dozen companies over the next 2 to 3 years, based upon technologies developed at the "big five" Long Island research institutions. Specifically, LIET will use its resources to transform laboratory ideas into companies that will be eligible for angel and venture capital investment. LIET will identify promising technologies, help create companies, assist in identify initial corporate leadership, and assist in creating business plans and/or prototypes. The fund will be managed jointly by LI-based venture capitalists Mark Fasciano (Canrock) and David Calone (Jove Equity Partners) initially launching with $500,000 in capital, which they seek to grow to $1 million in total committed capital by early 2012.

"Long Island's research institutions are rich in intellectual capital," said David Calone, President & CEO of Jove Equity Partners, LLC. "We look forward to combining those intangible assets with capital and leadership to create companies that will grow an innovation economy and create Long Island jobs."

"In the last eighteen months, Canrock Ventures has started and funded eight companies on Long Island. One of these companies started as a tech transfer from Stony Brook, which not only has produced a steady and fruitful collaboration between the entrepreneurial and academic teams, but an exciting, revenue-producing company. This experience has made us confident about the potential of the LI Emerging Technologies Fund and the creation of an innovation ecosystem on Long Island," said Mark Fasciano, managing director of Canrock Ventures.

"I am proud to say that Accelerate Long Island, a subsidiary of the Long Island Association, has hit the ground running with the help of our partners, Senator Schumer and Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko," said Kevin Law, President and CEO of the Long Island Association. "Under the care of business leaders like Mark Fasciano and David Calone, I am confident that we can bring Long Island's innovative research to market."

Schumer also pointed out the Stay in New York kickoff that the Department of Energy's new Start-up America Initiative, which began earlier this year, reduces upfront fees from $50,000 to $1,000 for patent licenses available at federal labs, like Brookhaven, for U.S. start-up companies. The program gives companies six months to obtain an exclusive license agreement for technology developed at Brookhaven.

In addition to the LIET seed fund, Hofstra University has pledged legal and business help from their Law and Business schools to any early stage venture formed out of this effort. Another Accelerate partner, Stony Brook University, has also pledged assistance to any incubated company to help secure potential incubator space at one of the new facilities at the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT) or the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center (AERTC).

Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko said, "I thank Senator Schumer for working with Accelerate Long Island to bring researchers together with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. This is what Accelerate Long Island is all about - making the right connections between our world-class research facilities and our creative business minds so we can create new high-tech jobs and start-up companies on Long Island."

Schumer's Stay in New York jobs program is the latest in a series of initiatives the Senator has championed to maximize the jobs potential of Long Island's major research institutions. Earlier this year the Senator announced an effort to link the region's major powerhouse institutions into a regional innovation cluster on Long Island that would create high-paying jobs focused on the development of advanced technologies. In April, Schumer facilitated an audio-conference between members of the Accelerate Long Island cluster and the Senior Advisor to the White House Economic Council, Ginger Lew, to discuss funding opportunities and strategies.

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