Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | February 20, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 11 all of those years, all of that kept being reinvested," Birt said. "at is how you start something from zero with very little," Birt continued. "Time is the one thing that is really valuable to other people, but you can do it for free and then you build off of it until you find your right niche to be able to continue driving your funding." MassTech has specific grants designed for each cycle of the development process for startups, which is important because venture capital companies like to see early stage funding, said Christine Nolan, director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at MassTech. At $22 billion in 2021, Massachusetts has positioned itself as a state where VC money flows, receiving the third most VC money in the country, behind California and New York, according to Seattle business capital database Pitchbook. Building off Cambridge's success e next step for Central Massachusetts is harnessing all the money that's out there and bringing it to the region. A specific area where this can be achieved is in the biotech sector, said Jon Weaver, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives incubator in Worcester. In 2022, more than $8.7 billion was in venture capital money flowed to biopharma companies in Massachusetts, one year aer startups in the commonwealth got $13 billion, according to the industry group Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. For startups to get to that point where they get funding, though, they have to take years perfecting their product and a few more years to get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Weaver said it's usually 10 years and $1 billion spent on research before there's a return on investment. At the same time, the investment can be worth it, and Weaver sees money beginning to flow into Worcester's burgeoning biotech sector. Cambridge is still the commonwealth's life sciences hub, with nearly 50% of VC money flowing to its biotech companies, but it used to be not all that different from Worcester, he said. "If you walked through Cambridge not that long ago, it was a bunch of empty parking lots and brown brick buildings with a bunch of potential," Weaver said. "And because of the combination of education and medical companies and the workforce and all these other pieces that are built into our cluster, it has erupted and taken off as a worldwide example of biotech. "And Worcetser has a lot of the same ingredients, and as that cluster [in Cambridge] begins to spill out to the point where it can't be fully self-contained within l-95," he said. "Worcester has an awesome value proposition to capture that." When it comes to funding, though, don't believe all of the origin stories. ere is money flowing, of course. Investors are making bets, and entrepreneurs are trying to prove they're the best one. e most important funding still comes early on from friends and family, much like Gates got from his father, a lawyer with a huge practice. Bezos' ex- wife and the person who helped him start Amazon, MacKenzie Scott, worked for author Toni Morrison and the multinational hedge fund D. E. Shaw & Co. before Amazon took off. "Don't believe everything that is in the news with a lot of the folks that say they start from nothing," Birt said. "Because a lot of times, they have very extensive networks of wealthy friends and family." Christine Nolan, director of the MassTech Center for Advanced Manufac- turing W Simply Beter. Member FDIC Member DIF FOR ANY SIZE BUSINESS we have you covered We have the lending options, competitive rates and financial solutions to ensure the growth and prosperity of your business, no matter the size. Call one of our experienced commercial lenders at 800-649-3036 or email us at commercial@saversbank.com. B A N K I N G & F I N A N C E F O C U S Jon Weaver, CEO and president of Mass. Biomedical Initiatives Top states for venture capital funding, per capita State 2020 VC funding VC funding per capita Massachusetts $30.6 billion $4,353 California $135.1 billion $3,417 New York $41.9 billion $2,073 Vermont $735 million $1,143 Washington $6.8 billion $881 Colorado $4.6 billion $799 Utah $2.6 billion $795 Illinois $5.3 billion $416 Nevada $1.3 billion $415 Pennsylvania $4.6 billion $354 Note: Only states with a $700+ million in annual funding were included in the calculations. Source: Crunchbase

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