St. Louis County finances bioscience startups
Missouri Watchdog
April 14, 2011
By Brian R. Hook
The St. Louis County Economic Council is betting that $1.5 million raised from leasing 56 acres of land to the River City Casino in south St. Louis County will help foster growth in early-stage bioscience companies.
The St. Louis County Port Authority, an affiliate of SLCEC, has committed to funding the newly created Helix Fund with $500,000 a year for three years.
Other funds from the lease are being used for projects in the unincorporated area known as Lemay.
Pinnacle Entertainment, which broke ground on the abandoned track of land in 2005 after contaminates were removed, opened the gaming facility last year.
"Our goal is furthering a richer environment for entrepreneurship," said Elizabeth Noonan, vice president of business development at SLCEC.
She is in charge of managing the Helix Fund, which focuses exclusively on investing in bioscience startups.
The Helix Fund has already made three investments.
The first investment was $100,000 in Phycal, based in Cleveland. The company, which is working on developing fuel from algae, has a laboratory at the Bio-Research and Development Growth Park in St. Louis County.
The second investment was $50,000 in Confluence Life Sciences, an early-stage company developing treatments for animal and human diseases including cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases.
The third investment was $50,000 in Six Convert, which is developing technology to enable wastewater-to-energy projects, converting carbon dioxide in the biogas into methane, the principle component of natural gas.
All of the investments by the fund have been structured using convertible notes, a type of bond the holder can convert into shares of common stock in an issuing company, or cash of equal value at an agreed-upon price.
The owner needs to reside in St. Louis County or the company has to be located in the county.
"We want to see a startup that is growing and expanding here in St. Louis County," Noonan told Missouri Watchdog, adding the goal is to create jobs and raise the profile of St. Louis County as a place for bioscience.
The county is also developing the Helix Center, a business incubator focused on bioscience. The center, which received funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, is scheduled to open later this year.
Biosciences is one of the target clusters in a five-year economic plan released by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Monday. Hundreds of business and civic leaders participated in the 11-month process of compiling eight strategies, including investing in technology and innovation, and optimizing tax, incentive and regulatory policies.
