The Florida Opportunity Fund recently announced that it will award up to $4 million to Harbert Venture Partners, a Birmingham-based investment firm. Last year, the firm established a unit at the University of Florida's Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator to increase its access to new biotech companies with promising products.

According to an article by the Orlando Sentinel, Harbert Venture Partners mainly invests in early-stage healthcare and information technology companies throughout the Southeastern United States. The company has offices in Gainesville, Fla.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Richmond, Va.

Created in 2008, FOF is a state-funded, public-private unit co-managed by MILCOM Venture Partners. The organization has been working to lure more financing for start-up companies in Florida. Currently, it has committed $16 million to four investment firms looking to increase their venture deals with Florida companies.

The fund works out deals with professional venture investment firms to attract more financing for cutting-edge companies, in return spurring the growth of high-paying tech jobs and diversifying Florida's economy.

During 2009, the fund provided seed investments to Orlando-based Inflexion Partners; Element Partners, which has offices in Radnor, Pa., and Menlo Park, Calif.; and Maryland-based New Enterprise Associates.

The Orlando area could certainly use the additional workers, as the local economy has seen an increase in unemployment and continued to lose jobs on a monthly and yearly basis.

During November 2009, the Orlando-Kissimmee area's unemployment rate increased from 11.5 percent to 11.8 percent, following a decrease from 11.6 percent during October. This decrease keeps the area's rate higher than the national unemployment rate of 10 percent.

The area had a total non-farm employment of 1,018,500 workers during November, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 1,019,100 workers during October and a 4.1 percent decrease from November 2008.