Ventana coming to Hawai'i
By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer
Thomas Gephart, managing partner for Ventana Capital Management LLC, likens Hawai'i's fledgling biotech industry to that of San Diego's in the early 1980s. And like San Diego firms did, Hawai'i high-tech companies need access to capital for the industry to grow.
Ventana, an Irvine, Calif.-based venture capital company plans to open a Hawai'i office to help local technology firms gain access to investor money. The company, founded by Gephart in 1974, has about 70 portfolio companies that have attracted more than $3 billion in capital.
Gephart, who will deliver the keynote address tomorrow at the Wayne Brown Institute's Fifth annual Investors Choice Conference at the Turtle Bay Resort, answered questions via e-mail about his plans for Hawai'i:
Q: What do you plan to discuss in your keynote address?
A: The positive impact that venture capital can have in developing Hawai'i's biotech community. Hawai'i is much like San Diego was 20 years ago. At that time, Ventana was the first significant venture capitalist in San Diego. In the early 1980s, San Diego was a sleepy military and resort town.
However, wanting to make a significant change in the business economy and the community, the mayor and the local universities banded together and committed themselves to making San Diego a center for high-tech and biotech performance.
Fast-forward to today ... Forbes magazine calls San Diego the most diversified high-tech economy in the United States. In San Diego, there are now more than 200 biotech companies. Ventana itself has aided more than 40 biotech companies in the past two decades. Several of these companies have become biotech leaders in San Diego.
Ventana asks, why not Hawai'i? You have the government, the universities and the infrastructure all there to support the growing move toward harboring more biotech companies. In fact, Ventana sees Hawai'i as the missing link in the biotech network developing on both sides of the Pacific.
Q: What are Ventana's plans for Hawai'i and what kind of reception have you received from institutional and other local investors?
A: Ventana has a specific plan for Hawai'i. We have put into place our own hands-on team including the recent engagement of Dick Sherman. With Dick's help, we have met with local entrepreneurs, university and community leaders, bankers and private investors, all of whom are intensely interested in biotech's promise in Hawai'i. Our efforts to help biotech companies grow in Hawai'i has been met with much enthusiasm.
Q: What's your assessment of the state of Hawai'i's high-tech and biotech industries?
A: Hawai'i has several areas that are emerging right now in the local high-tech and biotech industries. For instance, you have the angels and other engaged private investors and a state government that is actively growing Hawai'i's infrastructure to attract and accommodate these types of companies.
Hawai'i definitely has the right platform for expansion for the high-tech and biotech industries. What is missing at this point is the catalyst capital that venture capital can bring to the table for these companies.
Q: Where do you see opportunities for Hawai'i companies to compete on a regional or global basis?
A: With the influx of venture capital to Hawai'i-based companies, many opportunities will open up. Biotech is a global business and a clean industry. Ventana's goal is to help integrate our know-how, our international connections and both our capital and other equity sources that we have worked with in the past. Hawai'i's mid-Pacific location is ideal for the state's participation in this global enterprise.
Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8093.
