Area Rakes In Venture Capital

By MICHAEL SASSO The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 8, 2007

TAMPA - Bay area companies scored big in the race for venture capital in the spring and early summer, winning about $81 million and far outpacing Florida's other metropolitan areas.

The biggest winner in the state was a Tampa-based pharmaceutical company called Sirion Therapeutics, which won $45 million from venture capital investors. Without much attention or fanfare, Sirion quickly has grown to 50 jobs in the Tampa Bay area and 13 more in San Diego, Chief Executive Officer Barry Butler said.

Also winning venture capital was St. Petersburg-based Lifestyle Family Fitness, which collected $18 million.

On Tuesday, the National Venture Capital Association and Pricewaterhousecoopers released venture capital statistics for the second quarter, which runs from April 1 to June 30. Venture capitalists invest in young companies, especially high-tech and life sciences companies, and often cash out several years later through a sale of the company or initial public offering.

During the quarter, 15 companies in Florida won $127.1 million. That is just a small percentage of the $7.1 billion that venture capital firms pumped into companies nationwide.

Still, Florida companies are benefiting from an increase in investments this year. From January through June, Florida companies won about $276 million, which is the biggest six-month total since 2001.

Tampa-area companies did especially well. Six Bay-area businesses combined to collect slightly more than $81 million in the second quarter. Aside from Sirion Therapeutics and Lifestyle Family Fitness, local companies winning venture capital were Telovations, a Tampa-based operation that provides telecommunications services ($6.5 million); the Institute for Corporate Productivity, a St. Petersburg research firm that studies human resources issues ($6.05 million); Avalon Healthcare Holdings, a Tampa-based health insurance company ($3.48 million); and Skyway Software, a Tampa-based software firm ($2 million).

For Sirion, the past two years have provided a windfall of investment capital. Even before scoring $45 million recently, it had won $30 million from venture capitalists, Butler said. The money is helping the company develop and do clinical trials on its four treatments for eye conditions or diseases, including a drug to help fight a retina disease called dry age-related macular degeneration.

The company's management is made up of former executives of eye-care pharmaceutical companies, several of whom came from the local drug division of Bausch & Lomb, Butler said. They founded Sirion in December 2005.

Butler is hoping the company's drugs can hit the market as early as next year. Sirion didn't invent its initial products, Butler said. Instead, it is licensing the right to make and sell products that are on the market in other countries but not in the United States, he said.

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at msasso@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7865.