A Public-Private Experiment Gone Right

Few cities can take advantage of a catalyst like the Buffalo Billion, the development plan New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced in 2012 to invest $1 billion into the region. The program’s impact has been widely felt: Today, Buffalo’s startup scene benefits from a boom in health care construction—including a $270 million children’s hospital and a $375 million medical school— and such entrepreneurial organizations as the Billion-funded Buffalo Manufacturing Works. Still, the area remains a talent exporter, thanks in part to a lack of venture capital. Those that have landed funding include auto seller ACV Auctions, which scored $31 million in Series C in February 2018, and celluloseinsulation maker CleanFiber, which has raised $4.9 million to open a factory in nearby Blasdell. Both came out of the 43North startup competition, also funded by—you guessed it—the Billion.