Tech Companies to Watch

$1 Million TechStart Fund Launched to Spur Technology Innovation and Business Formation

Connecticut Innovations (CI), the state’s quasi-public authority responsible for technology-based economic development, today announced that it has launched the TechStart Fund, which was created to spur technology innovation and business formation at an early stage. The TechStart Fund is one of several new initiatives slated to be launched under CI’s recently announced plan to deploy $250 million over the next five years.

The TechStart Fund provides initial capital so that startup teams can determine the viability of a technology business and whether funding would be available to launch the new business. Supporting the TechStart Fund is a 10-week pilot program during which teams approved for funding will be provided with mentors and professional resources offering strategic guidance in launching a new business.

“We look forward to working with a wide range of high-tech entrepreneurs under the TechStart Fund,” said Peter Longo, president and executive director of CI. “We’ve had great success in supporting student-led ventures in recent years and hope to encourage more students, as well as other entrepreneurs, to test the waters with new business concepts through TechStart.”

The pilot program supporting the TechStart-funded teams will be directed by CTech@Science Park at Yale in New Haven and begin in March 2012. The application deadline for that initiative is February 22, 2012.

At the conclusion of the program, participating teams should be ready to make a pitch to investors and launch a company.

Longo added, “The TechStart Fund will complement and support programs to be offered under the state’s exciting, new Innovation Ecosystem initiative. Entrepreneurial teams participating in any technology business accelerators started within the ecosystem’s innovation hubs will have the opportunity to obtain critical startup funding through the TechStart Fund. In many cases, this will be the very first funding received by these emerging ventures.”
 

About Connecticut Innovations Inc.
Connecticut Innovations (CI) is a quasi-public organization dedicated to driving a vibrant, entrepreneurial, technology-based economy in Connecticut. CI stimulates high-tech growth by investing in early-stage Connecticut technology companies, university/industry research collaborations and technology transfer and collaborating with government, business, nonprofit and academic organizations to advance technology growth and promote public policies consistent with CI’s mission. For more information on CI, please visit www.ctinnovations.com.  

 

Connecticut Innovations Announces Approval of Plan to Deploy $250 Million in New Funding

CI to Expand Programs for Entrepreneurs and Recruit Out-of-State Startups

Connecticut Innovations (CI), the state’s quasi-public authority responsible for technology-based economic development, today announced board approval of a plan to deploy $50 million per year, over five years, consisting of $25 million per year from the state of Connecticut, along with a matching $25 million per year over the same period from CI itself. The plan calls for CI to recruit early-stage, high-potential companies from other states, leverage its knowledge of the technology industry and investment community to attract outside investment to match CI funds, and utilize its expertise to expand existing initiatives and launch new initiatives to invigorate Connecticut’s emerging technology sector, bolstering further CI’s record of success.

$125 million in new funding from the state was included in Governor Malloy’s jobs bill, which was signed into law in October 2011. CI’s plan is to match this state funding for each of the next five years with its existing cash and funding from its investment returns.

“Connecticut Innovations has a proven ability to accurately assess the needs of entrepreneurs, and to respond to those needs with programs that reflect today’s economic challenges and opportunities. CI’s capabilities are essential to the success of the technology sector in Connecticut,” said Governor Dannel P. Malloy. “Adding to their tool kit and providing more funding will allow the organization to accelerate its success in creating jobs and growing Connecticut’s economy.”

Included in the plan is:

• $4 million per year for CI’s pre-seed program, which offers loans to support the formation of new Connecticut technology companies.
• $22 million per year for seed stage and Series A investments, which help entrepreneurs grow existing businesses, and for follow-on investments in CI portfolio companies.
• $6.5 million per year for a newly developed loan program, which provides growth and working capital for technology companies.
• $7 million per year for the aggressive recruitment of emerging technology companies nationally and internationally. CI plans to work with the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) and other state agencies to design a relocation incentive package, similar to the governor’s “First Five” initiative.
• $4 million per year to help Connecticut companies capture more of the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funds each year, as well as increase industry partnerships and the state’s technology talent pipeline. 
• $4.8 million per year to establish technology business accelerator hubs, which will provide support services to startups, and to create a corporate technology transfer initiative.*  

“This new funding will allow CI to continue to spur new innovation and startup business in the state as well as step up our recruitment of out-of-state companies to Connecticut,” said Catherine Smith, DECD commissioner and CI chair. “We’re excited about these new initiatives and we’re eager to get the program underway.”

In the past three years alone, CI investments have leveraged $74 million in private capital investments for Connecticut companies. Through the Small Business Research Innovation (SBIR) program, small Connecticut technology firms captured $35-$38 million per year in federal funding in recent years and have generated $20+ million more per year in revenues directly attributed to those awards. CI’s investments add, on average, 1,600 Connecticut jobs per year.

*Revised as of January 12, 2012


 

About Connecticut Innovations Inc. 
Connecticut Innovations (CI) is a quasi-public organization dedicated to driving a vibrant, entrepreneurial, technology-based economy in Connecticut. CI stimulates high-tech growth by investing in early-stage Connecticut technology companies, university/industry research collaborations and technology transfer and collaborating with government, business, nonprofit and academic organizations to advance technology growth and promote public policies consistent with CI’s mission. For more information on CI, please visit www.ctinnovations.com.        

Ownership of IP is a Key Strategy of Innovative Firms, According to WIPO

Ownership of intellectual property (IP) rights has become central to the strategies of innovating firms worldwide, according to The Changing Face of Innovation, a new report from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Researchers contend that rapidly growing global investments in innovation and the globalization of economic activities are key drivers of this trend. Between 1980 and 2009, global patents rose from 800,000 applications to 1.8 million. During this time, international royalty and licensing fee revenue increased from $2.8 billion in 1970 to $27 billion in 1990, and to approximately $180 billion in 2009 outpacing global gross domestic product (GDP). These results have led to the emergence of new market intermediates (e.g., IP clearinghouses and brokerages). The researchers also contend that this trend will move IP policy to the forefront of innovation policy.

Evidence indicates that knowledge markets enable firms to specialize, allowing them to be more innovative and efficient at the same time, according to the report. However, globalization of the knowledge market also places a greater emphasis on innovative firms to decide which knowledge to control and safeguard from domestic and international competitors and which to share for the purpose of increasing the general knowledge base. Rapid innovation in select sectors (e.g., telecommunications, software and audiovisual technology) has led to significant increases in the number of patent applications of complex technologies — technologies consisting of many separately patentable inventions where patent ownership is often widespread.

To keep up with this growing trend, well-functioning patent institutions have become a cornerstone of successful innovation systems. They must perform several tasks including ensuring the quality of patents granted and providing balanced dispute resolution. However, they are facing increasing pressure due to the significant number of applications they receive each year. This has lead to a significant number of national patent offices facing severe backlogs. In 2010, the number of unprocessed applications worldwide stood at 5.2 million.

The report highlights several different national policies to harness public research for innovation, including polices to incentivize patenting and commercialization of products by university and public research organizations (PROs). These programs have seen significant results over the past several decades. University and PRO filings under the WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) have grown from almost zero in the 1980s to more than 15,000 in 2010 with most of the growth coming from advanced economies (e.g., Germany, France, Japan and the U.S.). The report concludes that policy reforms aimed at promoting patent-based university technology transfer have multifaceted effects on research institutions, firms, the science system and national economies.

Highlights from the rest of the report's finding include:

• Global R&D expenditures almost doubled in real terms from 1993 to 2009;
• Clear evidence that innovation is increasingly international with increases in the share of peer-reviewed articles with international co-authorship and a rising share of patents from international collaborators;
• Evidence to support the idea that innovation has become more collaborative and open; and,
• Evidence showing that society usually benefits from research collaboration due to enahanced efficiency and effectiveness of the innovation process.

WIPO also released its World Intellectual Property Indicators 2011, a report that contains detailed statistical information on national and international IP filing data. IP filings worldwide rebounded strongly in 2010 after a considerable decline in 2009, according to the report. During that period, the recovery in IP filings was stronger than the overall economic recovery. While global GDP grew by 5.1 percent, patent filings grew by 7.2 percent in 2010. Data shows that China and the U.S. accounted for nearly four-fifths of worldwide growth in patent filings. After two years of near zero growth, the U.S. patent office saw 7.5 percent growth in 2010 and received the largest total number of applications worldwide (490,226). Mirroring wider economic trends, the patent office of China (391,177 filings) overtook the office of Japan (344,598 filings) to become the second largest recipient of patent applications.

The report also analyzes the numbers of filings by resident applicants. During this time, Chinese residents overtook Japanese residents by 2,985 applications to become the most active patent filers in 2010. Residents of Japan (172,945 applications) and the U.S. (178,355 applications) filed the largest number of patent applications outside their own country. Residents of Canada, Israel, the Netherlands and Switzerland filed more than 80 percent of their total applications abroad. Read the report...

Attributed to: State Science and Technology Institute

Tech Companies: Line up your Spring and Summer interns now!

CTC has had great luck with interns from area universities and technical high schools.  Hiring an intern can provide your company with a cost effective means of completing projects along with a boost of ideas and energy that can benefit your entire company!  

How to find interns:

Visit Internhere.com - a service of the Hartford-Springfield Economic Partnership aimed at connecting students with internship opportunities.   They offer both High School and College intern matching, statewide.  Create a profile and watch the terrific applications come in!  

For Hartford Area Interns: Pathways to Technology Magnet High School is looking for (primarily summer) openings for their very tech savvy high schoolstudents.  Contact Kim Bennett, Internship Coordinator at 860-695-9495 or [email protected]  

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About Pathways:
Pathways to Technology Magnet High School is one of hundreds of Academy programs established in high schools across the country by the National Academy Foundation (NAF). NAF’s mission is to sustain a national network of career academies to support  the development of our students toward personal and professional success in high school, in higher education and throughout their careers. It is an Academy of Information Technology (AOIT) and some of our classes include Programming, Computer Information Systems and Networks, Web Design, Film/Video, and Sound Production.  

The IT program consists of a rigorous academic curriculum taken over three or four years of high school, and includes a student internship, after the end of the junior year. Our academy approach focuses on long-term goals and successfully bridges the gap between the classroom and the workplace.

From Kimberly Bennett, College/Career Specialist and Internship Coordinator:

We are seeking meaningful internships for our students where they can take the knowledge and skills they have learned in the classroom and apply it to the work environment.  Through my contact with employers, we have been told by some supervisors that our students are even more prepared than college interns!  As previously stated, we are seeking meaningful internship opportunities for our students to gain real world experience.  I have attached our Internship Brochure for Employers.

Pathways to Technology Magnet High School, 184 Windsor Ave, Windsor, CT 
Kim Bennett, Internship Coordinator at 860-695-9495 or [email protected]