|
New Mexico has been rated
#1 for Best Places For Business And Careers by
© Forbes
|
|
|
WORK IN NEW MEXICO
Business in New Mexico
New Mexico is rapidly becoming one of the hottest places to relocate a business. The New Mexico Partnership is committed to partnering with you to ensure your success. We provide all the necessary information and assistance for you to make an informed site location decision -- and succeed into the future.
This is a land proud of its heritage, proud of its history and lifestyle. It is a place of stunning beauty, contrasting landscapes and complementary cultures. Its hardworking, educated people are committed to the State's success. And the State is committed to the success of its citizens.
We are also committed to growing strong, sustainable businesses. We have a portfolio of incentives, tax benefits and other programs that stand behind our commitment, including one of the most aggressive job training programs in the nation. New Mexico's communities are not only great places to live and work; they are great places to have a life, surrounded as they are by a variety of cultural and recreational opportunities, from Robert Trent Jones golf courses through Class V rapids to ancient Anasazi ruins.
New Mexico is financially stable and action-oriented to the highest levels of government, with a strong business culture and infrastructure. It's an exciting location to do business, whether that business is producing movies, improving drug delivery systems, pioneering space tourism, thinking up new things to do with chile or designing precision tools.
You can, and you will, make it in New Mexico . The New Mexico Economic Development Partnership makes it happen.
A TECH OASIS IN NEW MEXICO: The state is a hotbed for venture investing. 8% of those who are NOT entrepreneurs, say they would like to be. A much larger number - 20%, say they see opportunities where an entrepreneur could thrive!
True, it's no Silicon Valley, but New Mexico is becoming a "venture capital hot spot!" According to the National Venture Capital Association, the number of venture -backed deals done in this state in 2007 surged to 167%, to 24, compared with a 5% increase nationwide. Those transactions raised more than $128 million, compared with $32 million in 2006, and made New Mexico the fastest growing for venture investing last year.
One reason is that the our state is home to the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. Over the past decade, the federal government has increased its efforts to commercialize technology from both labs. The state also has a program that invests in venture funds on the condition that the funds open offices in New Mexico and put some of their money to work here. It also encourages them to recruit other venture firms to invest in our state.
The New Mexico Private Equity Program started in 1994 with about $60 million, and by 2007, the state had increased its commitment to about $500 million. Every dollar invested by participating venture funds has led to an additional commitment from other investors, says Greg Kulka, director of private equity for the New Mexico State Investment Council. That's because any money New Mexico ponies up must be matched by other investors. So, if the state puts $10 million into one venture capital firms, the firm can invest $5 million from its own fund in New Mexico companies if it also arranges for other venture players to put another $5 million into New Mexico startups.
"Once Venture Companies fro outside start coming here for one board meeting, it becomes easier for them to look at other deals," says Trevor Loy, a managing partner at Santa Fe based Flywheel Ventures. Flywheel received $15 million of the $32.5 million in its flagship fund from the state. "This would be an appropriate model for any stat that has a strong high-tech base," says David Durgin, general partner at Albuquerque's Verge Fund, which was launched in response to the state program. Some $10 million of Verge's $22 million came via this initiative.
Entrepreneurs also have noticed the difference. "There are more firms looking to do deals here now," says Jim McNally, president and CEO of Albuquerque's Tru-Touch Technologies, a 16 person maker of sobriety testing devices. Tru-Touch is the third New Mexico startup McNally has been involved with since 1997. This time around, he raised $1 million in venture funding, and all four investors were participants in the state program.
Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association warns that this kind of model won't work everywhere. "You need good colleges, good universities, and a good social environment," Heesen explains. "If you don't have that basic infrastructure, it's going to be hard to encourage Venture Capital investing, no matter how much money you throw at it." But with the right seeds in place, New Mexico's experience shows that a little bit of nurturing from the public sector can yield a powerful return.
|
|