CAPCO Programs

Advantage Capital Partners has selected Ironwood Capital to identify potential companies for investments:

Connecticut has chosen a Missouri-based equity and venture capital firm to manage a $72 million investment pool aimed at growing small businesses.

The new funds come out of a provision in the recently passed jobs bill, which revised the state’s Insurance Reinvestment Tax Credit program to allow money managers to invest in any Connecticut-based business, not only insurance-related ones.

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Back in 2000, Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan vetoed an extension of the CAPCO program despite the state’s need for funding for start-up companies:

There is a sense that senatorial politics cast a shadow over the extension of Capco funding in Missouri.

Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, who supported the original legislation which created the Capco program in 1997, vetoed an extension this year because he was concerned with cutting $13 million in expenses on an estimated $7.5 billion revenue projection.

Some observers speculate the governor wanted a squeaky clean fiduciary bill of health because of his political battle with incumbent Sen. John Ashcroft. Mr. Ashcroft takes special pride in his own budgeting abilities during his gubernatorial tenure.

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The Midwest Technology Journal published an article discussing the benefits of the Missouri Certified Capital Companies (CAPCO) program:

Given the tremendous importance of small business to the Missouri economy – 95 percent of all companies and 35 percent of all jobs – it is remarkable that so few of the state-sponsored programs designed to stimulate economic growth are directed at assisting smaller firms. In Missouri, for example, only four of the 21 tax incentive programs designed to encourage investment and job growth are directed primarily at small business. This lack of support is even more inexplicable given the dynamic potential of small emerging businesses and the special problems that are unique to these firms – in particular, a lack of specialized managerial expertise and access to external sources of funding.

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CAPCO Programs make the Midwest an attractive location for entrepreneurial endeavors:

In just three years, the InvestMidwest Venture Capital Forum has established itself as the Midwest’s premier annual venture capital forum, to date generating more than $100 million in equity investment for innovative entrepreneurial growth companies. From the Forum’s early focus on companies located primarily in the St. Louis/Kansas City regions, InvestMidwest is now poised to expand its reach to encompass the country’s entire central corridor, thereby attracting a larger audience of regional and national venture capitalists.

InvestMidwest is presented by the RCGA, Missouri Venture Forum, Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, KCCatalyst, Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation and Technology Gateway Alliance. The Forum is sponsored by the Danforth Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and a diverse group of public and private organizations.

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Missouri’s rural and agricultural communities could be receiving millions of dollars through the state’s CAPCO Program:

The Certified Capital Company (CAPCO) program, a highly successful economic development initiative aimed at creating jobs and fueling entrepreneurial activity in Missouri, could bring $25 million in venture capital funding to the state’s rural and agricultural communities. The program was first adopted in 1997 and is up for renewal in the state legislature.

Senator Joe Maxwell, (D – Mexico), joined by Senator Franc Flotron (R-St. Louis), Representative Catherine Hanaway (R-St. Louis) and Representative May Scheve (D-Affton), has introduced legislation this year to expand the CAPCO program for an additional $10 million dollars a year for ten years. As part of the deal, $25 million of the bill’s total $100 million would be designated for Missouri rural, agricultural businesses.

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Small businesses can turn to their local CAPCO programs for funding:

Fostering new businesses in your county (with their new tax revenue potential) is obviously a much better way to deal with state budget cutbacks and dwindling local revenues than increasing taxes or cutting services or both. And it doesn’t necessarily take a new automobile assembly plant in your community to turn the revenue slide.

For most counties, small businesses are the economic engines for their communities. The National Association of Small Business Owners reports that small businesses employ 51 percent of private sector workers; provide two-thirds to three-quarters of the new jobs; and represent 96 percent of all exporters of goods.

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The St. Louis Business Journal reports that Advantage Capital Partners invested $2 million in Transaction Transport Technologies (T3) under the Missouri CAPCO program:

The seconds ticked away too slowly for customers at Wild Bird Marketplace in Manchester as they waited for phone connections to process credit card transactions.

That prompted Owner Doyle Banks to switch his credit card processing to a new clearinghouse earlier this year — Transaction Transport Technologies, based in Lafayette Square.

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The Journal of Multistate Taxation and Incentives discusses in-depth the importance of CAPCO programs and its success in economic development:

The “certified capital company” (CAPCO) program provides a framework for states to foster local entrepreneurship and lends itself to modifications in response to industry trends, thus giving states a new tool with which to address the priorities of the small-business sector and the states own economic development goals.

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The Certified Capital Company (CAPCO) Program helps bring prosperity to the agricultural business in rural Missouri:

The Certified Capital Company (CAPCO) program, a highly successful economic development initiative aimed at creating jobs and fueling entrepreneurial activity in Missouri, could bring $25 million in venture capital funding to the state’s rural and agricultural communities. The program was first adopted in 1997 and is up for renewal in the state legislature.

Senator Joe Maxwell, (D – Mexico), joined by Senator Franc Flotron (R-St. Louis), Representative Catherine Hanaway (R-St. Louis) and Representative May Scheve (D-Affton), has introduced legislation this year to expand the CAPCO program for an additional $10 million dollars a year for ten years. As part of the deal, $25 million of the bill’s total $100 million would be designated for Missouri rural, agricultural businesses.

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St. Louis Commerce Magazine reports that Advantage Capital Partners is contributing to the success of Missouri entrepreneurs through the CAPCO programs:

Among the valuable results of the annual InvestMidwest Venture Capital Forum is a wide range of partnerships, projects, exchange of ideas, information and opportunities among entrepreneurs, funding entities and public-sector economic development leaders.

Advantage Capital Partners, an InvestMidwest sponsor since the Forum’s inception, believes the current difficult state of the economy underscores the importance of public/private partnerships for states and communities that want to achieve aggressive economic development goals.

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