A new $100 million fund has launched out of Automation Alley, promising to help fund the growth of second-stage businesses in Metro Detroit and Michigan.
Stage 2 Innovations will target growing firms in need of significant amounts of capital to fund commercialization of products or large-scale expansion of existing product lines. The fund will look for an equity stake in its investments.
"There is an opportunity for the private sector to step up to the plate and play a role," says Ken Rogers, executive director of
Automation Alley. "Stage 2 Innovations is doing just that."
Stage 2 Innovations is being funded by an anonymous wealthy individual and is led by former Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda. Simon Boag will serve as CEO and will oversee a team of roughly a dozen people working out of Troy.
The fund is not bound to invest only in Metro Detroit or Michigan-based companies, nor does it have a goal for a number of local companies it wants to make an investment in. However, LaSorda and Rogers were confident a lot of the deals would turn out to be local because of Stage 2 Innovations' partnership with Automation Alley and its plans to utilize the business accelerator's connections.
"The bottom line is we want to help companies in Michigan," LaSorda says. "We want to help commercialize ideas here."
Source: Ken Rogers, executive director of Automation Alley and Tom LaSorda, co-founder of Stage 2 InnovationsWriter: Jon Zemke
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