The Midwest Growth Capital Symposium’s 2020 event will take place May 12-13 at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest in Ypsilanti Township. The symposium is a platform that offers emerging growth companies in the Midwest that are seeking funding the opportunity to connect with investors.
More than 400 attendees are expected, including leading venture capitalists, angel investors, technology transfer professionals from across the country, and CEOs and founders of the emerging companies.
This year’s program will highlight the traction that the life sciences, advanced manufacturing, mobility, and other sectors are gaining in the Midwest technology ecosystem. The event will include guest speakers and panel presentations hosted by some of the nation’s leading investors and entrepreneurs. Previous speakers have included Dixon Doll of DCM Ventures, Scott Kupor of Andreessen Horowitz, Wendell Brooks of Intel Corp. and Intel Capital, and Clay B. Thorp of Hatteras Venture Partners.
“Over the past four decades, MGCS has provided an opportunity to showcase the growing startups and talent produced in the Midwest to a community of investors beyond the region and offered tech transfer companies connectivity to the market,” says David Brophy, professor of finance at the University of Michigan and founding director of the symposium. “The idea of building businesses and getting them funded has permeated the Midwest, and our goal is to maintain this momentum.”
The symposium will host about 40 companies that will pitch their businesses to potential investors and stakeholders in attendance. The MGCS University Research track will also showcase more than 50 emerging high-potential, high-growth companies that are commercializing research discoveries and new technologies. Applications forms for presenting companies are available here through March 5.
This year, the event will also recognize Brophy’s decades-long investment in growing the Michigan venture capital community before his retirement later this year. He is the director of U-M’s Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance, which hosts the event, and founded the Midwest Growth Capital Symposium in 1980.
Sponsorship packages for the event are available and range from $1,000-$10,000.
