SSTI Digest

Between 2007 and 2012, the number of women-owned businesses in the U.S. grew by more than 27 percent, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners. The agency reports that women owned about 9.9 million businesses in 2012, about 36 percent of all firms. In 2007, only 29 percent of businesses were owned by women.  Business ownership also appears to have become a bit more racially diverse during those years, with the share of minority business-owners growing from 21 percent to 29 percent. Much of the surge among women business owners appears to have come from women of color. The report includes data on business ownership by gender, ethnicity and veteran status both by state and for the nation as a whole. A more complete version, with additional data on industry, firm receipts and employment, will be released in December. This week’s release is the first update of the Census Bureau’s business ownership data since 2010, which provided a snapshot of activity in 2007. Toward the end of 2007, businesses were beginning to feel the effects of the Great Recession, though most of the impact was still to come. The current…

Update: You can view the full webinar and download the slide presentation at: http://ssti.org/regional-innovation-strategies-program-informational-webinar Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced the launch of the Economic Development Administration's (EDA) 2015 Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) Program competition to spur innovation capacity-building activities in regions across the nation. Under the 2015 announcement, SBA will commit $10 million for two funding opportunities: i6 Challenge – approximately $8 million in awards will be made to organizations that help innovators and entrepreneurs turn innovations, ideas, intellectual property, and research into viable, sustainable companies; and, Seed Fund Support Grants (previously Cluster Grants for Seed Capital Funds) – approximately $2 million in awards will be made to organizations to develop regionally focused seed capital funds that provide early stage capital to innovation-based startups with a potential for high growth. In an effort to promote and support inclusion, EDA expects to award up to $2.5 million of the $8 million allocated for i6 Challenges to projects that provide…

This week marked the launch of New York Ventures, an Empire State Development program dedicated to encouraging innovation and fueling economic growth in communities across New York. The program is derived of three separate funds: the $100 million New York State Innovation Venture Capital Fund; the $45 million Innovative NY Fund; and, the $2 million Minority- and Women-Owned Business Investment Fund. As part of the New York Ventures launch, Empire State Development also announced the NYS Innovation Venture Capital Fund’s close on financing for two New York-based tech companies. A key component of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s economic development agenda, the New York State Innovation Venture Capital Fund was announced in December 2014 with the intention of creating and attracting new jobs and companies by providing seed funding for the development of early stage companies in high-growth areas. Originally set to be $50 million, Cuomo called to double this amount in his State of the State Opportunity Agenda.  The now-$100 million fund, which is expected to leverage at least $100 million more in private capital, is comprised of two segments. The Technology…

At a White House event, the Small Business Administration (SBA) announced approximately $4 million to prizes to 80 growth accelerators in 43 states the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico through the second round of its Growth Accelerator Fund Competition. Launched in 2014, the competition makes awards of $50,000 each to help fund operating budgets for accelerators and other entrepreneurial ecosystem models in parts of the country where there are fewer conventional sources of access to capital (e.g., venture capital and angel capital investors). The SBA Office of Native American Affairs also used the competition to award an additional $400,000 to ecosystems primarily dedicated to Native American entrepreneurs and small businesses. Read the press release… To help entrepreneurs identify growth accelerators in their state/region, SBA published an interactive accelerator map that includes all the 2015 winners. A complete list of the 2015 prize winners is available at: https://www.sba.gov/offices/headquarters/ooi/resources/1438651.  

Last week, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) held a special meeting that include approximately 100 investors and venture capitalists to help stimulate private sector investments in rural infrastructure projects with the potential to spur economic development in small towns and rural communities across the country. Through its U.S. Rural Infrastructure Opportunity Fund, the USDA has helped to facilitate the investment of nearly $161 million in private capital toward 22 critical water and community facilities projects in 14 states. The U.S. Rural Infrastructure Opportunity Fund is part of a broader effort by USDA to rethink how to best leverage private sector resources and investments to spur economic prosperity across the country. Last year, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the creation of a $150 million privately funded Rural Business Investment Company (RBIC), which has already made three investments in rural businesses with high-growth potential. Earlier this year, Secretary Vilsack announced the launch of two additional new privately funded RBICs that also will make investments in high-growth companies. Read the announcement……

Conducted by the National League of Cities (NLC), the Local Economic Conditions Survey 2015 asks government officials in more than 250 cities across the nation to assess their local economic conditions. Painting a broad picture of the economic health of cities, Cities and Unequal Recovery highlights key points from the most recent survey. The report finds that economic conditions over the past year have improved in nearly all cities, with 28 percent of city leaders indicating that conditions have improved greatly and 64 percent reporting slight improvements. In the 2013 Local Economic Conditions Survey, just 8 percent of cities reported greatly improved local economic conditions from the year before. Mid-sized cities – those with populations between 100,000 and 299,000 – were the most likely to report that conditions improved greatly (40 percent), while smaller cities – those with fewer than 50,000 residents – were the least likely (20 percent). No city with a population greater than 300,000 reported that conditions had become worse over the course of the last year, while smaller cities were the only cities to report worsened economic…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a request for information (RFI) that invites comments and suggestions from the public to help in the development of its new five-year strategic plan. In response to a request from Congress, the new NIH-wide strategic plan is intended to advance NIH’s mission of supporting biomedical research in pursuit of fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to extend healthy life and reduce illness and disability. NIH is interested in receiving responses related to, but not limited to: promoting fundamental science research; improving health promotion and disease prevention; and, advancing treatments and cures. NIH also requests responses that help set future NIH priority areas and strategies for enhancing NIH’s stewardship of the biomedical research enterprise including research workforce development and public-private partnerships. The NIH-wide strategic plan is due to Congress in late December 2015. All responses (no longer than 300 words) must be submitted electronically to NIH by August 16, 2015. Read the RFI…

Now that many governors have signed spending bills and legislative sessions are drawing to a close, the SSTI Digest will check on the status of proposals related to the innovation economy, and examine the state of technology-based economic development funding in the states. This week, we review spending bills in Delaware, Hawaii, Oregon, and Wisconsin. DelawareEarlier this month, Gov. Jack Markell signed a $3.9 billion FY16 operating budget (HS 1 for HB 225) and $456 million capital budget (SS 1 for SB 160). Under the approved budget, the state's Economic Development Office would receive about $2.8 million in general funds and $6 million in special funds. About $1.7 million is appropriated for the state's Blue Collar workforce programs. In his State of the State, Gov. Markell proposed using programs, such as the Blue Collar grants, to provide 65 percent of the state's workforce with degrees or certificates by 2025. HawaiiIn May, Gov. David Ige signed a $26 billion budget (HB 500) that included about $30 million in tech-related appropriations. The budget provides funding for the state's High Technology Development Corporation (HTDC) to…

Vice President Joe Biden announced that the Research Foundation for the State University of New York will receive a $110 million federal grant from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to lead the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM-Photonics). The Department of Defense-funded grant will be supplemented by a $250 million investment from the state of New York with additional funding commitments from public and private partners expected to exceed $245 million over the next five years. Headquartered in Rochester, NY, AIM-Photonics is intended to develop the next generation of integrated photonics while helping to  create and support thousands of advanced research and manufacturing jobs in New York state and across the nation. According to a fact sheet released by the White House, the winning team includes 75 key partners and 49 additional consortia members from 20 states including: 55 companies; 20 universities and laboratories; 33 community colleges and other schools; and, 16 nonprofit organizations. Read the announcement…

Between 1998 and 2010, impact investment funds outperformed funds of the same size, according to the Wall Street Journal. Impact-focused funds of $100 million or less posted a 9.5 percent pooled net internal rate of return, outperforming the 4.5 percent delivered by funds of the same size that were not focused on impact investments. The industry, however, is still in its nascent stage and data remains somewhat scarce. In an article for Quartz, William Burckart contends that wealth management professionals are hesitant to propose impact investment funds to their clients for several reasons, including: Many financial managers do not really understand impact investments or how to explain impact investment to their clients so they are less willing to bring them up to their clients. For the managers that understand impact investments, the lack of metrics in the field cause these managers to be hesitant to suggest them. To address this issue, several recent research studies and books propose industry-wide benchmarks, metrics, and other methodologies to understand how to measure both the monetary and social impact of impact investing. In many cases, these benchmarks, metrics…

Located just a 20-minutes from New York City, Newark has long existed in the shadow of its much larger neighbor. Despite this, Newark’s downtown received an important boost to its innovation ecosystem this week with the announcement of Newark Venture Partners, a venture capital fund and accelerator. Seeded with funding from Audible.com and Prudential Financial and backed by city and state officials, Newark Venture Partners announced its intention to raise $50 million to form an investment fund dedicated to supporting local tech startups. In addition to the fund, Newark Venture Partners is also building out a collaborative, state-of-the-art, 25,000-square-foot accelerator across the street from Newark’s Broad Street train station, co-located alongside Audible’s headquarters and the Rutgers University Business School, who will both help provide resources to the young companies.  Audible, Prudential Financial, and the Military Park Partnership will also be funding the Firebolt Wi-Fi system, stretching two miles throughout downtown Newark, which will provide funded startups and other Newarkers with free-access to high-speed Internet service. Community…

Total venture capital investment rose 95 percent in 20 of the world’s top startup ecosystems from 2013-2014, according to The Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking 2015 – a 160-report from Compass, formerly Startup Genome. Compass researchers also found that the global startup ecosystem landscape is maturing rapidly with non-Silicon Valley ecosystems capturing 14 percent more of the exit value pie in three years (2012-2014). In 2014, non-Silicon Valley startup ecosystems captured 59 percent of the value of all startup exits, up from approximately 45 percent in 2012. The report includes several recommendations for policymakers and investors to support or grow their region’s startup ecosystem including: Create policy that minimizes the friction of incoming flow of foreign capital and foreign talent. Simplify regulations for startups that will allow for low legal costs of startup formation, startup bankruptcy, and liquidation on startup exit. Differentiate your startup ecosystem and accentuate its strengths by either focusing on a stage of the startup lifecycle, a particular market, or product type. The report also includes a five component index, which ranks the top 20…