Hatteras closes fourth fund with boost from government

Hatteras Venture Partners closed its Hatteras Venture Partners IV fund at $125 million, which will invest in seed and early stage companies focused on biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics and healthcare IT. Clay Thorp, a general partner at Hatteras, told BioCentury that the firm raised $88 million in private funding for the fund, with the balance coming in the form of debt from the Early Stage Innovation Fund program. The initiative was created as part of the Small Business Administration's Small Business Investment Company capital investment program.

Under the Early Stage Innovation Fund initiative, the SBA matches through a government-guaranteed loan up to $50 million of what a fund has secured so long as the firm raises at least $20 million for the fund and invests at least half of the fund in early stage small businesses. Early stage businesses are defined as companies that have never achieved positive cash flow from operations in any fiscal year. The initiative is part of the White House's "Startup America" initiative, which was first detailed in January 2011 (see BioCentury Extra, Jan. 31, 2011). ...