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Foxconn’s Venture Capital Fund

Bruce Murphy has a solid assessment of Foxconn’s much-touted (by Foxconn) venture capital fund in About That Foxconn Venture Capital Fund.

It’s well worth reading in full. A few key points:

Unfulfilled:

Louis Woo of Foxconn had promised this venture fund for startup companies would naturally connect to Foxconn’s innovation centers in Eau Claire, Green Bay and Milwaukee, which will be places where “entrepreneurs and startup companies can get their feet wet.” But all three innovation centers were never created.

Grandiose:

[Scott] Walker’s entire promise that “this fund will be a launch pad for attracting and retaining businesses and top talent in Wisconsin while simultaneously helping Wisconsin become a new global hub for technology,” is wildly exaggerated.

Though not perhaps as fanciful as Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “Ideas Lab” writer David Haynes, who suggested the fund, combined with the mighty Foxconn project in Racine County, could lead to the creation of something like the research triangle in North Carolina. Nostradamus he is not.

Inadequate:

In short, this fund is far too small to be transformative for Wisconsin, all the more so since it’s not required to be spent in Wisconsin. But it is a step in the right direction for a state that’s long been lacking in venture funding. And the fact that it has other three strong local partners bodes well for its survival. Even if the Foxconn project dies, which seems likely, the Wisconn Valley Ventures fund should live on. Maybe it will even add a phone number.

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