ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL BUSINESS OUTLOOK
SHOWTIME-
Tiny Techs will Present Their Talents to Investors with Deeper Pockets this Year
3/14/05
By Andrew Webb
Journal Staff Writer
For Tom Swann, president of E M Optomechanical, the state’s investment environment has changed significantly since the first time he presented at Technology Ventures Corp.’s annual Equity Capital Symposium.
That was 1997, and the company he led then was Optomec – now a $10 million –dollar-a-year concern employing 36.
Though the symposium didn’t directly result in an investment, Swann says TVC advisers helped him hone the company’s business plan, allowing it to later land a $500,000 angel investment from a Boston investor.
This year, he’s aiming higher – Swann is seeking a $2.5 million venture investment to commercialize a technology developed at Sandia National Laboratories.
“The investment community has improved since then,” he said. “There are several venture capital firms who have branch offices here. I don’t think there were any in 1997.”
Swann’s optical equipment firm E M Optomechanical is one of 20 tiny techs – with products ranging from avionics to pharmaceuticals – scheduled to present in TVC’s 13th annual symposium on May 18 and 19.
The event is designed to help companies commercialize technologies, including those that have originated from national laboratories and research institutions in New Mexico, Nevada and California.
This year’s symposium comes as venture capital, angel and seed-stage investing have reached record levels for post-Internet bubble years. And in New Mexico, aggressive state-funded programs and other efforts have helped spawn an unprecedented array of venture capital, seed-stage and angel investing companies and organizations in New Mexico.
“Out-of-state companies can now come to Albuquerque to get financial exposure, whereas in the past, they had to go to Austin or San Francisco to get that exposure,” said TVC CEO Sherman McCorkle.
Last year, New Mexico had 23 investments or other “funding events” totaling $88 million, he said.
That was up from a low of $27 million in 2001, following the 2000 record of $133 million. Since then, investing in New Mexico and the rest of the nation has slowly recovered as skittish venture capitalists and other investors have re-opened wallets. According to the National Venture Capital Association, venture investing nationwide reversed a three-year downward trend in 2004 with $21 billion in funding.
“Not only is it true for the nation, but for New Mexico in particular, there’s more equity and venture capital available in New Mexico in 2005 than at any other time in our history,” McCorkle said.
More than 142 companies have presented since TVC’s first symposium in 1992. About 35 percent of those have received funding, to the tune of $471 million, according to TVC.
This year’s companies – 14 from New Mexico, three from California and three from Nevada – and their products are:
§ E M Optomechanical Inc., based in Albuquerque, aims to commercialize a Sandia National Labs-developed device similar to a microscope used to observe and measure the operation of tiny machines, or micro-electromechanical devices.
For More Information Contact:
E. M. Optomechanical, Inc.
13170-B Central Ave, SE, #310
Tel: 505-281-1746
FAX: 505-281-1643
Internet:
sales@emopto.com