A state plan adopted last year to attract more investment dollars for local startup companies has lacked one crucial component: a way to spend the money.
The Invest Georgia Fund was seen as a way to forge a new, if riskier, path that allows the state to fund innovative firms. The tech community, in particular, hailed the bill’s April 2013 signing as a way to entice emerging firms to stay in Georgia rather than flee to startup hubs where seed money flows more freely.
Elected officials, though, have lagged in appointing members to a five-person board set to oversee the fund. And without that oversight, the University System of Georgia says it can’t do anything with the one-time $10 million initial investment it has set aside for the fund.
The money hasn’t been invested “because there is nobody in place to call the shots,” said John Brown, the University System’s budget officer. He said he is waiting for the board to be formed and for leaders to decide “what direction it’s going to take.”
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