Mark Kvamme who recently left his post as president of Jobs Ohio, the state’s economic development enterprise, has launched a venture capital firm, Drive Capital, focused on the Midwest and, particularly, Ohio where he cites a lack of access to capital as a barrier to economic growth.

Kvamme who is now a central Ohio resident, noted recently that only 7 percent of the nation’s venture capital is invested in the Midwest compared to 51 percent in Silicon Valley alone.

A partner at Sequoia Capital, Kvamme has the right chops for the job. In fact, he is currently a director to some of the most successful startups, including LinkedIn, Cast Iron Systems, Funnyordie.com, StrongMail Systems, Mark Logic and Adbrite.