WisBusiness THU News Summary

— Madison ranked 14th in the world in 2012 for the amount of venture capital invested per capita, according to a report from the Martin Prosperity Institute.

The institute, affiliated with the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, released a report this week evaluating venture capital dollars worldwide, using Thomson Reuters data.

The institute found $42 billion in venture capital investments worldwide, with the U.S. accounting for almost 70 percent of that. Silicon Valley attracted almost $11 billion in investments, followed by Boston with $3.1 billion and New York with $2.1 billion. London ranked 7th at $842 million, while Beijing was ninth at $758 million and Toronto ranked 12th at $628 million.

Madison, meanwhile, had $63.21 million in venture capital investments. And although that figure didn’t rank in the top 20, Madison’s $100 in investments per capita ranked it 14th in the world. Those in the top 20 in investments per capita ranged from San Jose at $2,146 to Phoenix at $73.

See the report:

http://martinprosperity.org/media/Rise-of-the-Global-Startup-City.pdf

— Madison also got a high designation of 7th in a WalletHub study evaluating the best metro areas in the U.S. for STEM workers.

The website’s analysts looked at 16 metrics in 100 metro areas, including jobs available, wages and projected demand for workers. Madison cracked the top five in one of those metrics, the quality of its engineering universities.

Ranking above Madison overall were the areas of San Jose, Austin, Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis and Boston.

See more:

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-metro-areas-for-stem-professionals/9200/

— JPMorgan Chase & Co. is closing an office in downtown Milwaukee because customers no longer need as much help with their mortgages.

The closing will lead to 135 layoffs at the end of March, according to a notice the state’s Department of Workforce Development received. JPMorgan spokeswoman Christine Holevas attributed the layoffs to an industry that’s “changing to meet the new needs of our customers.”

“As the economy continues to improve, we’re seeing far fewer homeowners struggle with their mortgages and the vast majority have already refinanced,” she said. “The volumes have decreased and we no longer need as much staff as before.”

Last year, Wells Fargo closed a Milwaukee that did similar work and said it would lay off 839 people. That gave it the second highest layoff notice on DWD’s database from 2015.

— An Assembly panel has approved a bill that would make it a crime to provide fraudulent information to WEDC.

The bill, which makes that action a class E felony, was amended to add a provision that allows WEDC to recoup any damages in court. It cleared the Assembly Committee on Jobs and the Economy 11-3 yesterday, with all Republicans voting for the bill and three Dems opposing it.

Rep. Tod Ohnstad, D-Kenosha, called his vote against the bill a “tough one.” He said the potential penalties under the bill could scare companies away from applying for WEDC’s help.

The committee also held a public hearing on four economic development bills, one of which raises the cap on investments eligible for the state’s Qualified New Business Venture program.

Another bill would create a grant program managed by the state Arts Board to help creative industries, which supporters said would help make Wisconsin more attractive to millennials.

Two other bills would boost help to Wisconsin’s industry clusters, including water tech, food packaging and information technology. One bill creates a 25 percent tax credit for any research in industry clusters, while the other allows WEDC to give contracts to organizations such as the Milwaukee-based Water Council.

See more on the committee meeting:

http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=363945

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**REGISTER NOW Thursday Feb. 18: State Budget Director Michael Heifetz**

Sponsors: Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek, American Family Insurance, University Research Park, Walmart, and Xcel Energy.



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