Missouri Equity Funds

Venture Capital

Venture capital firms tend to be specialized in specific industries and tend to only invest in those industries. VCs want to invest money in companies that can realistically expect high rates of growth, 20% or more, for at least several years. They take partial ownership in the business, and therefore expect to have a say in how the business is operated.

The following are located in Missouri:

• Advantage Capital Partners
• Ascension Health Ventures
• TGP Capital Partners, LLC
• Bush O'Donnell Capital
• Capital for Business, Inc.
• Invest MidWest
• Midwest Venture Alliance
• Oakwood Medical Investors
• Open Prairie Ventures
• Prolog Ventures
• RiverVest Venture Partners
• Southeast Kansas Venture Alliance
• Stifel, Nicolaus & Company Inc.
• Thompson Street Capital Partners
• Triathlon Medical Ventures

Pre-Seed and Seed Capital

The New Enterprise Creation Act helps generate investment for new businesses starting up in Missouri. Through legislative statute, the DED issued tax credits equal to 100 percent of the investment in a qualified fund to any accredited individual, corporation, partnership, or financial institution that makes a qualified investment.

The Coalition for Plant and Life Sciences is establishing a $7.5 million Pre-seed Fund. The Fund will be used to invest in very early-stage companies, with an emphasis on newly created companies that have successfully emerged from the BioGenerator project.

Pre-Seed & Seed Capital Companies

• Advancement, LLC
• The St. Louis Capital Alliance

Small Business Investment Companies (SBIC)

Small Business Investment Companies (SBIC) are venture capital firms that receive loans from the Small Business Administration to make equity investments in small businesses. Venture capital firms do not have to be regulated, but must submit to regulation if they want to be an SBIC.