Gov. Andrew Cuomo this month launched a $50 million Innovation Venture Capital Fund to support and attract new high-growth businesses to St. Lawrence County and elsewhere around the state.

The fund provides support for entrepreneurs making the transition from research to marketplace, and incentivize them to stay and grow their businesses in New York. The idea is to provide critical seed money to support technology start-up companies such as those that Clarkson University endeavors to spawn through its research and entrepreneurship programs.

The $50 million fund is expected to leverage at least $100 million in private capital to support high growth areas including advanced materials, clean technology, life sciences/biotechnology and information technology.

The fund is in two segments. The Technology Commercialization Segment will facilitate the commercialization efforts of start-up companies associated with New York’s universities and make small pre-seed stage investments of up to $100,000. The Seed and Early Stage Co-Investment Segment will invest directly in seed and/or early stage companies, with an emphasis on strategic industries such as information technology and life sciences/biotech, as well as relatively underserved areas of the state, with investments ranging from $100,000 to $5 million. Empire State Development will review each and approve all of the Fund’s investments.

For more information on the program, visit http://esd.ny.gov/BusinessPrograms/NYSInnovationVentureCapitalFund.html.