Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty on Wednesday told a legislative committee that his team is devoting more resources to the oversight of the TNInvestco venture capital program. The beginnings of "a management structure" are being put in place to supplement the less than one FTE who had been tracking the TNInvestco paperwork.

SEE ALSO: Audit slams ECD's administration of TNInvestco

An East Tennessee medical imaging company received a shot in the arm Thursday with the announcement that a couple of TNInvestco participants — including Nashville's Council & Enhanced Tennessee Fund — have combined efforts to contribute $6 million to support the development efforts of ABT Molecular Imaging.

“We have ambitious goals and are driving forward to achieve them,” said Tom Welch, president and CEO of ABT Molecular Imaging in a company release. “This capital will allow us to continue developing critical biomarkers while rolling out our Generator to the many organizations that are interested in making PET scans more accessible for their clinical and research needs.”

ABT's Series C round was led by River Cities Capital Funds and also included Limestone Fund and Intersouth Partners, the company’s first institutional investor.

In a wrapup of some recent activity at TNInvestco funds, Milt Capps writes about TriStar's Technology's interest in a young San Francisco-area company that's developing technology to better analyze molecular interaction and thus help speed up drug development projects. The company's approach is based concepts that originated at Vanderbilt University and its acceptance of TriStar's cash should lead it to relocate its home office here.