Recap: Bill would gut Kansas Bioscience Authority
May 19, 2015 | Bobby Burch
A bill in the Kansas legislature if passed would dissolve the Kansas Bioscience Authority, which has recently served as a venture capital organization investing in early-stage bioscience firms.
The measure — SB 305 — would shut down the organization and transfer its funds and obligations to the Kansas Department of Commence.
Proponents of the KBA say that the dissolution of the KBA aims to help fill a projected $406 million shortfall in the Kansas budget. The bill’s sole supporter, Steven Anderson, a lobbyist for the Kansas Policy Institute and formerly Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget director, said the KBA’s mission is better served by the private sector, according to the Wichita Eagle.
Founded in 2004, the KBA invests in animal and human health, agribusiness and life sciences. It’s invested in such companies as Flow Forward, Metactive, Aratana and Innara Health.
KBA chief executive Duane Cantrell said the current value of KBA assets held in startup investments is $32 million to $34 million, according to the Kansas City Star. Cantrell reportedly testified to the Legislature that his organization has nabbed back assets worth $19 million through portfolio companies’ initial public offerings or exits.
For more information on this story, check out these links:
Kansas City Business Journal: Kansas Bioscience Authority fans voice support at the Capitol
Topeka Capital Journal: Senate explores bill closing state’s bioscience agency
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Why NMotion gives founders (without a startup) $100K and tells them to forget their assumptions
Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation. LINCOLN,…
Missouri receives $95M from federal initiative to boost startup, small business growth
A newly announced $27 million in federal funds earmarked to support small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs is headed to Missouri, representing the first of three awards approved by the U.S. Department of Treasury — totaling $95 million — to be deployed through the Missouri Technology Corporation. The funding comes via the State Small Business Credit Initiative,…
Startup: Stop wasting brain power on work that doesn’t matter; founders strike their own work-life balance in rural MO
Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation. MOBERLY,…
Build Trybe outgrows incubator mode, taking over Maker Village KC to train at-risk youth in trades
When Nick Ward-Bopp launched Maker Village KC more than five years ago near Martini Corner, he never dreamed the maker space would incubate a program for at-risk youth that ultimately would build beyond it. Set up in a once-vacant Midtown building he rehabbed with co-founder and longtime friend Sam Green, the space started as a…