A newly created venture capital fund from Pittsburgh may be coming to Northeast Ohio — if it can hit its fundraising goal.
Corridor Venture Partners is in the process of raising capital for its first fund, and is targeting Cleveland due to the city’s abundance of healthcare investment opportunities, from medical devices to diagnostics to health IT.
The fund is aiming for an initial closing of $20 million and would look to add an office in Cleveland if it’s able to hit $50 million, co-founder Gary Glausser told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Corridor is in discussions with BioEnterprise, a Cleveland nonprofit that helps biomedical firms with business development.
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“We envision hiring one administrative support staff, and if we are successful in raising a $50 million target, we would probably hire a partner-level person who would probably reside in Cleveland and co-locate with BioEnterprise,” Glausser said.
Glausser didn’t return a call or e-mail, so the amount of capital Corridor has so far raised is unclear.
Glausser is a partner with another Pittsburgh firm, Birchmere Ventures, and is a past president of the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association. Birchmere’s biomedical portfolio companies include psychiatric disorders drug developer NuPathe and cancer diagnostics company Precision Therapeutics.
Joining Glausser as a partner in Corridor will be Pete DeComo, CEO of Pittsburgh-based artificial respiration company Alung Technologies, another Birchmere portfolio company.
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Baiju Shah, president of BioEnterprise, confirmed that his organization has been in talks with Corridor. “We have had numerous conversations with Corridor Ventures and look forward to them completing their fundraise and establishing a presence in Cleveland,” Shah said.