CincyTech, a nonprofit venture development organization that advises and invests in high-tech start-ups, was awarded $2 million in
Ohio Third Frontier funds last week. A working group with the goal of increasing Cincinnati area applications for the competitive funding program is set to meet July 1.
Ohio Third Frontier was first approved by voters in 2005 to create jobs statewide in information technology, advanced manufacturing, energy and life sciences by supporting entrepreneurs and commercialization. Ohio voters in November voted to renew the program through 2016.
The $2 million award, which CincyTech matched with $2 million that it raised, will go into CincyTech's operating budget and its
Imagining Grants program, said President Bob Coy. Those grants, up to $40,000, go toward covering the costs of fleshing out an idea and making it a potential business in CincyTech's focus areas. The grant can cover technology validation studies, market analysis and other work, Coy said.
Since 2007, CincyTech has considered 815 investment opportunities and provided substantive advice to more than 150 companies, and so far it has invested $4.5 million in 15 companies, 10 in information technology and five in bioscience. CincyTech also has helped local startups raise $66 million from private seed and early-stage venture capital firms such as Queen City Angels.
But a recent Cincinnati Enquirer analysis found that of the nearly $1 billion in grants awarded statewide, including $100 million in Southwest Ohio, only a tenth of that money went to the Cincinnati area. Of more than 1,000 applications only 108 came from Southwest Ohio.
To help increase those numbers Coy will be meeting with members of the business community on July 1 to begin designing a strategy that will increase awareness of Third Frontier across Greater Cincinnati and encourage and guide more high tech companies to successfully apply for the state funds, Coy said.
Soapbox will follow up on the details of the group's progress after it meets.
Meanwhile, some Cincinnati businesses are moving forward with the help of Third Frontier funds. SpineForm, a Blue Ash medical device startup and CincyTech portfolio company, was just awarded nearly $1 million for a clinical study of its HemiBridge System. The system addresses the need for non-fusion treatment of progressive scoliosis, or deformity of the spine during juvenile and adolescent growth.
Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Sources: Bob Coy, President CincyTech, Carolyn Pione, Communications Director CincyTech
You can follow Feoshia on twitter
@feoshiasoapbox
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