Tennessee’s pioneering TNInvestco venture capital program – set up under former Gov. Phil Bredesen — is hitting a pivotal point financially and politically now that Gov. Bill Haslam is overseeing it, along with Haslam’s own INCITE, another state-financed venture capital fund
The Nashville Business Journal suggests the situation is summed up thusly: In with the new, not quite out with the old.
Early results show the proportion of private investment (in TNInvestco) fell by 30 percent in 2011, and state lawmakers are gearing up for sharper scrutiny.
In its second annual report, TNInvestco — which generated a pool of venture capital through $200 million in state tax credits — continues to show surging amounts of public and private investment in an array of companies. But that growth comes as the public dollars take up a larger share of the investment pool than in 2010
Also, TNInvestco is undergoing an audit at the request of ECD Commissioner Bill Hagerty.