Foundation commits $50 million to helping Tulsa become a tech hub
Tulsa Innovation Labs has received a $50 million commitment from the George Kaiser Family Foundation to help develop the city of Tulsa as a technology hub. The funds will go towards assisting the new organization to support local talent, startups and academic innovation.
Tulsa Innovation Labs, founded earlier this year, has already begun identifying the most promising areas of growth including virtual health, energy tech, drones, cyber and analytics. The organization intends to define its first phase of initiatives by the end of the year, and with input from university, industry and community leaders’ initiatives will likely include a mix of startup incubation and acceleration, workforce development and academic innovation.
In the meantime, the organization has already launched two programs, the Holberton School, a two-year academy that will graduate 500 software engineers each year; and TU-Team8 Cyber Fellowship, a collaboration with the University of Tulsa to support 10 doctoral students each year focusing on turning cyber-related academic research into startup companies.
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