The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), through its Office of Investment and Innovation (OII), Office of Native American Affairs, Office of Veterans Business Development, and its federal partners consisting of the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Education, announced the 68 winners of the third annual Growth Accelerator Fund Competition. There is one winner, New Biz Launchpad, in Wardensville West Virginia, who will receive $50,000 out of a total of $3.4 million in prizes to boost the economic impact of accelerators across 33 states and the District of Columbia.
“It is a great honor for our state to receive one of the Growth Accelerator awards,” states West Virginia District Director Karen Friel. “I look forward to working more with New Biz Launchpad to help the small business community of West Virginia.”
The purpose of the competition was to draw attention and funding to parts of the country where there are gaps in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. While there are entrepreneurial activities occurring nationwide, some are better supported by private sector ecosystems than others. SBA has created connective tissue amongst the over 200 winning entrepreneurial ecosystems now part of the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition program.
Accelerators serve entrepreneurs in a broad set of industries and sectors – from manufacturing and tech start-ups, to farming and biotech – with many focused on creating a diverse and inclusive small business community. The 2016 competition builds on the success of the previous two years and provides several different award categories, including: General, Small Business Innovation (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, Veteran, and Native American.
Applications were judged by more than 100 experts with entrepreneurial, investment, startup, economic development, capital formation and academic backgrounds from both the public and private sector. The first panel of judges reviewed over 400 applications and presentations and established a pool of 200 highly qualified finalists. The second panel evaluated the finalists’ presentations and pitch videos and selected the 68 winners.
“Promoting entrepreneurship is core to the President’s national innovation strategy,” said SBA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Natalia Olson-Urtecho. “We are excited to have so many Accelerators in the Region empowering and engaging organizations with the sole purpose of helping start-ups create economic growth, innovation, and inspire and empower diverse a community of great American companies.”
In addition to the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition, SBA’s OII also supports investment and innovation in West Virginia through two flagship nationwide programs: Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR). SBA licenses SBICs and provides $2 in government guaranteed debt for every $1 in private investment. Since it was created in 1958, over $80 billion has been invested, helping finance 170,000 American small businesses, including companies like COSTCO, Amgen, Apple, FedEx, Staples, and Tesla and Intel.
The SBIR/STTR program is a key pillar in the federal government’s strategy to provide seed capital to talented entrepreneurs in science, technology and engineering. Since its inception in 1982, the program has awarded over 157,000 awards with $43.5 billion in funding to early stage companies, including small firms that grew to become many of America’s leading large firms, such as Qualcomm, Biogen, iRobot, and Symantec. The federal government made four SBIR/STTR awards in West Virginia totaling more than $1.2 million in FY 2015. In aggregate since 1983, the federal government has made 224 awards in West Virginia for a total of more than $66.9 million.
Each winner will receive a cash prize of $50,000 from the SBA. In accepting these funds, the accelerators will be committing to quarte rly reporting for one year, through which they will be required to report metrics such as jobs created, funds raised, startups launched and corporate sponsors obtained. This will allow SBA to continue building upon its database of accelerators and their impact, and to develop long-term relationships with the startups and constituents in these innovative and entrepreneurial communities.
For more information about accelerators and the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition, visit: www.sba.gov/accelerators.
The West Virginia winner is listed below:
New Biz Launchpad
Wardenville, WV
Contact: Tina Metzer & Joe Kapp
www.facebook.com/NewBizLaunchpad
