Sen. Baldwin sees her first bill complementing state venture capital bill

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin sees her first bill, which she said would help increase the flow of venture capital to early-stage companies, as complementary to a venture capital bill passed this summer by the state Legislature.

Baldwin, the Democrat who took retiring Sen. Herb Kohl’s seat this year, on Wednesday visited the downtown Milwaukee headquarters of Promentis Pharmaceuticals Inc. to chat with staff about their startup and how her legislation might help their company grow.

The bill, introduced in July, would next go to the Senate’s committee on small business and entrepreneurship, Baldwin said. She has discussed it with the committee chair, Sen. Mary Landrieu, Democrat from Louisiana, and said there’s “strong interest in the bill.”

The legislation does not involve direct government investments. It would expand the U.S. Small Business Administration’s authority to provide up to $4 billion in leverage to Small Business Investment Companies, a program meant to connect small businesses to private equity capital. The program has traditionally paid for itself through fees paid by the Small Business Investment Companies to SBA.

Baldwin’s bill would also create a separate Small Business Investment Companies fund to provide equity financing for early-stage companies in targeted industries, including biotechnology, an area that the recently passed $25 million state venture capital bill does not include.

Baldwin reiterated that point several times in her visit to Milwaukee Wednesday.

“I looked at that (in the state bill) and said it’s a really big problem” because of Wisconsin’s expertise, Baldwin said.

Promentis, co-founded in 2007 by Marquette University biomedical sciences professors David Baker and John Mantsch, is developing compounds that show promise for treating Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia.

The company received Series A funding from the Golden Angels Network, among others, and also received a three-year, $1.8 million award from the National Institutes of Health through a Small Business Administration program that Baldwin’s office said her legislation would strengthen.

Promentis president Chad Beyer said Baldwin’s legislation could help boost his company’s access to capital, which would mean job creation and potentially keeping young talent in Wisconsin.

“There’s not a shortage of good ideas out there, it’s access to capital,” Beyer said of Wisconsin’s entrepreneurial climate. “If we had access to more money we would hire more people.”

Promentis currently has two full-time staffers, plus a number of part-time contractors. It rents lab space at Marquette and is working with two post-doctoral fellows at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Beyer said.