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KTEC Commercialization Value Chain
Nearly 20 years ago, the state of Kansas created the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC) to promote the development of high technology industries in Kansas. Since then, KTEC’s private sector leadership has continuously adapted its programs to the ever-changing needs of high-growth
technology companies and the entrepreneurs leading them.
Recognizing that 21st Century economic growth would be dominated by the biosciences, KTEC created the strategy and drafted the legislation for the Kansas Economic Growth Act (KEGA), the 2004 legislation that empowered the Kansas Bioscience Authority to invest an estimated $580 million of bioscience-related economic stimulus over fifteen years. But the passage of KEGA was neither the beginning nor the end of KTEC’s leadership in the biosciences.
The KTEC Technology Commercialization Value Chain
Simply put, technology commercialization is the process of transforming scientific discoveries first into intellectual property, then into market-driven products or services, and ultimately into stakeholder value. KTEC’s core operations and affiliates contribute to the process by which bioscience researchers, inventors, entrepreneurs, investors and operations managers in Kansas increase stakeholder value. With KTEC as a state-sponsored partner, technology companies can achieve success in Kansas as readily as anywhere in the world.
- KTEC Centers of Excellence, such as the Higuchi Biosciences Center at the University of Kansas, utilize KTEC resources to develop products from intellectual property created by leading bioscience researchers;
- KTEC Equity Investments provide seed stage capital to technology companies with the potential to secure venture capital or corporate investments;
- Regional Business Assistance Incubators work with entrepreneurs to refine business strategy, engage strategic advisors and approach venture capital firms for growth financing;
- KTEC Entrepreneurs in Residence provide advanced assistance to the most compelling opportunities in their areas of expertise while working on their own plans for start-up technology businesses.
Continued Leadership in the Biosciences
Once KEGA was passed and the Kansas Bioscience Authority created, KTEC supported this new instrumentality of the state by facilitating a strategic planning process and supporting its early operations. Today, KTEC is working with leading bioscience entrepreneurs, researchers and corporations to develop compelling investment proposals for consideration by the Bioscience Authority.
In particular, KTEC is working with the Bioscience Authority to increase access to capital for early stage bioscience companies. The strategy currently under development involves emulating the success of BioEnterprise, a business formation, recruitment, and acceleration initiative designed to grow health care companies and commercialize bioscience technologies in Northeast Ohio. Working with the senior leadership of BioEnterprise, KTEC is also developing a plan for a co-investment fund that would substantially increase the attractiveness of Kansas bioscience companies to venture capital firms outside the region.
Whether it’s providing matching funds for a university researcher’s NIH grant, assisting an inventor with an SBIR grant application, introducing early stage companies to angel investors and venture capitalists, or working with senior leadership of research institutions to identify and plan for “the next big idea” in technology-based economic development, KTEC is the state of Kansas’ voice and resource for technology commercialization.
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