YORK, Pa. (WHTM) — A year ago abc27 asked how similar some businesses in York could be to Silicon Valley. Back then Silicon Valley was more similar to a metaphor for success, but a lot has changed since then.

“I often speak to how venture capital is positioned here locally versus what we hear about in Silicon Valley,” said Martin Fedorko of White Rose Ventures.

Now, being different from Silicon Valley is a good thing. The venture fund, as it’s called, invests in both York, the white rose city, Lancaster, the red rose city, as well as Harrisburg and elsewhere.

“We’ve deployed just over $6 million across 11 companies right now,” Fedorko said.

Fedorko says the Midstate never experienced the Silicon Valley boom, and now we’re not experiencing the Silicon Valley bust.

Is it possible you’d really rather be York’s “The Pretzel Company,” the Lancaster neuro skills trainer “Reflexion,” or Harrisburg’s “Pledge-it,” than Facebook or Google?

While companies in the Midstate will never be as big as the Silicon Valley giants. But Fedorko says:

“These are the types of companies that can really grow and scale quickly and create the jobs and have the economic development impact that we want here in south-central Pennsylvania.”

The venture fund is now closed, which in the investment world is actually good news.

“It means we’re just closing this fund off to new investors right now,” Fedorko added.

The fun got all the money they were looking for, which is only bad news if you had millions of dollars lying around that we were looking to invest.

White Rose Ventures, a venture capital firm in York, announced that they have closed its $11.9 million venture fund, the White Rose Impact Fund on May 16.

The fund was created to invest in the dynamic landscape of entrepreneurs in south-central Pennsylvania. The fund’s goal was to “foster innovation” and accelerate economic growth.