COLUMBUS — Clermont, Brown, Adams and Highland counties could benefit from a new venture capital investment program for Ohio's 29 Appalachian counties and three other Appalachian states.

        A venture capital company has secured $32.5 million with help from the federal government to invest in companies in Appalachia.

        Adena Ventures will make investments ranging from $250,000 to $2 million in businesses with high-growth potential in southeast Ohio, West Virginia and in parts of Kentucky and Maryland.

        “It sounds like a great idea,” said Dean Niemeyer, Clermont County planning supervisor. “There are other economic development programs going on in Appalachia, but nothing like this.”

        Gov. Bob Taft, along with Adena founder David Wilhelm, an Ohio native and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, announced the company's plans this week during a Cabinet meeting in Marietta.

        Adena, which will be based in Athens, Ohio, with a branch office in Charleston, W.Va., will provide equity investments and capital assistance to companies to spark new employment and technology, said Joy Padgett, director of Gov. Taft's Office of Appalachia.

        The state has worked for more than a year to help a venture capital fund get started to target money specifically to the Appalachian region, which in Ohio includes 29 counties, Ms. Padgett said.

        “It's been really difficult because we didn't have a culture of venture capital there at all,” she said. “Venture capital provides one of those additional financial legs that companies are looking for.”

        Investment money will not be earmarked for specific counties, said Craig Overmyer, managing director of Hopewell Ventures, parent company of Adena Ventures. It will go wherever businesses qualify for funding, he said.

        “If an investor specified that they wanted their funds going to Ohio, the money would go wherever the opportunities come from,” Mr. Overmyer said.

        The U.S. Small Business Administration selected Adena this week to be part of a new program, New Markets Venture Capital Companies. Under the program, Adena is eligible for $16.25 million in federal money because it raised the same amount from private sources to match the federal funding.

        “This represents a significant investment in a region of the country that too often gets overlooked by business and industry,” U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, a Democrat from Lucasville whose district includes Appalachian counties, said Wednesday.

        Adena, which began raising money in December 1999, is expected to begin making its first investments in October.

        “As hard as we've worked to get to this point, we are committed to working even harder to make this a successful example for the nation,” said Lynn Gellermann, Adena's president and chief operating officer.

        More than 100 companies have contacted the state about how to take advantage of the fund, Ms. Padgett said.

        Companies that qualify for the money will receive technical support from Ohio University, which provided $2.7 million to the fund as the largest individual investor.

        Other investors include American Electric Power, National City Bank, Fifth Third Bancorp, Huntington Bancshares, KeyBank, the F.B. Heron Foundation, the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation and the West Virginia Economic Development Authority.

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