Four Triangle companies get cash infusion

DURHAM -- Venture capital firm Hatteras Venture Partners agreed to invest $7.5 million in four Triangle companies in the past 12 months.

Those investments are a departure for Hatteras, which has taken heat for failing to funnel money into North Carolina businesses.

"We're not trying to be heroes here," said John Crumpler, of the Durham firm. "It's because there is opportunity here."

The local investments came from Hatteras' latest fund, its third, which has $83 million to invest in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Clinipace, a company whose software is used for clinical trials, is the latest to benefit. Last week, Clinipace announced it had attracted $2.6 million from Hatteras and other investors.

Hatteras' other local investments include Viamet Pharmaceuticals, Phase Bioscience and a fourth business that Hatteras has not yet made public. Companies use venture capital funding to develop new technology or expand their operations.

Hatteras' past investments became an issue in 2004 after it received a $30 million investment from the Golden LEAF Foundation. The economic development group had hoped to trigger investments in North Carolina companies.

So far that hasn't happened, spurring criticism of the decision by Golden LEAF to back Hatteras and its investment partner, HBM BioCapital, a $140 million venture capital fund managed by HBM Partners of the Cayman Islands and Zurich, Switzerland. HBM Partners manages the fund, but Hatteras participates in investment decisions.

HBM BioCapital hasn't invested in North Carolina companies. Hatteras' current fund isn't affiliated with HBM, and Hatteras executives say the two funds have different investment strategies -- hence the very different track record.

Hatteras' third fund makes smaller investments in early-stage companies, such as those whose experimental drugs haven't yet been tested on people. HBM is making larger bets on companies that are more advanced.

Hatteras' third fund "can focus on making opportunities happen," said Clay Thorp, a general partner.

In addition, early-stage funds tend to invest closer to home.

"There is a lot of hands-on work that needs to be done," Crumpler said. When venture capital firms invest in an early-stage company, they typically take an active role in the business.

Golden LEAF's president, Valeria Lee, said she is heartened by Hatteras' local investments.

"The work is proceeding, but in a manner that is different from what we originally envisioned," Lee said.

She also expressed optimism that HBM eventually will plow money into North Carolina ventures. And she expects Golden LEAF will get a good return on its investment, although it's too early in the fund's life cycle to get a good reading on that. Venture capital funds don't reap returns until the companies they invest in are sold or go public, which can take many years.

But David Mills, executive director of the Common Sense Foundation, a nonprofit think tank in Raleigh, remains a critic of Golden LEAF's investment.

"I could identify hundreds of projects in the state where $30 million could have an immediate and lasting impact on the state's economic development in areas that need it most -- the rural counties," Mills said.

Hatteras executives counter by saying that without Golden LEAF's investment in its second fund, the third wouldn't exist. It enabled Hatteras to beef up its investment staff and was a selling point when Hatteras raised money for its latest fund.

And Monica Doss, president of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, said Hatteras' latest fund is filling an important gap. Over the past two or three years, she said, the amount of funding attracted by early-stage Triangle companies has fallen.

HBM has come close to investing in North Carolina businesses -- including co-leading a syndicate that wanted to invest more than $30 million in AlphaVax, a local vaccine developer. That deal collapsed at the last minute when AlphaVax's shareholders overruled its board of directors.

The final chapter in the HBM saga has yet to be written.

"There are several [North Carolina] companies under consideration right now, but no commitments have been made," Thorp said.