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ESS Inc., a company that closed a deal to go public earlier this month, was able to leverage public capital at its early stages to accelerate its success as a startup. Founded in 2011, the Wilsonville, Oregon, based company manufactures batteries for long-duration energy storage applications. In 2012, ESS Inc. received a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award from ARPA-E, and additional grant support from the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI), an SSTI member. ONAMI is an Oregon-based non-profit that provides grants, equity funding and business development guidance to startups engaged in research-based scientific innovation. It receives funding from Business Oregon, also an SSTI member.

In general, the effect of the pandemic on states’ budgets due to the wave of business, retail, and commerce shutdowns, as well as other reduced economic activity across the nation, is not entirely known, or too early to forecast; however, a number of states are beginning to experience the initial impacts of a substantial downturn. With several states having already enacted their 2020-21 budgets, special sessions are expected later this year to deal with declining revenues. Others ended sessions early without a new fiscal year spending plan in place. Many are also acting quickly to help mitigate the effects of lost revenues and an increased demand for services. Some of the states’ impacts and actions are outlined below.

Action toward improving the availability and speed of broadband in rural areas is emerging as an early theme in 2019, continuing activity from 2018. Oregon, Washington and the USDA all announced new initiatives last month. In mid-December, the USDA announced the availability of $600 million in grants and loans to support improvement of broadband accessibility across rural America. Funding is split into three equal pools. Up to $200 million may be awarded as grants (deadline for proposals is April 29); $200 million may be awarded as low-interest loans (applications due June 28); and $200 million may be distributed in a mix of grants and loans (proposals are due May 29).  Projects funded through this initiative must serve communities with fewer than 20,000 people with no broadband service or where service is slower than 10 megabits per second (mbps) download and 1 mbps upload.

The ability of states to deliver the services promised to its residents relies on their fiscal soundness. With most states beginning their fiscal year in July, SSTI has reviewed the current fiscal standing for each state and here presents a snapshot of our findings.

Most states ended their fiscal year with a surplus and continue to recover from the Great Recession, with a growing economy and job gains. However, they face continuing demands on their budgets, with expanded Medicaid payments and the growing opioid crisis confronting nearly every state. Such decisions affect the state’s ability to fund innovation efforts, from the amount of support available for higher education and STEM programs, to funding for entrepreneurship, and forging public private partnerships to strengthen innovation programming that the private sector cannot fully support.

Our analysis found that some states that rely on the energy sector to fund their spending priorities continue to struggle, while others are already factoring in anticipated revenues as a result of new Supreme Court rulings involving gaming and online sales tax collections.

State spending for the Oregon innovation economy during the 2017-2019 biennium in the Oregon Business Development Department received a sharp increase, thanks in part to nearly $14 million of funding for the new Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center (OMIC).  According to the Business Oregon website, “OMIC brings together as founding partners The Boeing Company, the broader regional metals manufacturing industry and employers, Portland Community College (PCC), Portland State University (PSU), Oregon State University (OSU), Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT)” for collaborative applied research and to address advanced technical training needs in the industry. Funding is distributed among a number of sources in the state budget:

Educational initiatives continue to dominate in state of the state, budget and inaugural addresses, with governors in North Carolina, New Hampshire and Oregon all acknowledging its importance in the workforce development sphere and the future competitiveness of the states.

A bipartisan group of 17 governors signed the Governors’ Accord for a New Energy Future – a joint commitment to support the deployment of renewable, cleaner and more efficient energy technologies and other solutions to make the U.S. economy more productive and resilient as well as spur job creation in member states. The multi-state effort will work to implement clean energy policies and initiatives in four areas: clean energy, clean transportation choices, a modern electrical grid, and plan for a new energy future. Although the accord doesn’t provide specific efforts, senior advisors to participating governors are expected to convene shortly to discuss initial steps to pursue their shared priorities and commitments according to solarindustrymag.com.

Over the past few weeks, the State of Oregon has announced a number of new capital opportunities for small businesses. Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, will invest $250,000 to support a new Inclusive Startup Fund that will invest in Portland-area startups founded by women and people of color. Fund leaders hope to raise a total of $3 million and match portfolio businesses with mentoring and business advising services. The agency also announced a new $250,000 loan program to help small manufacturers expand. The Oregon Growth Board announced its own $250,000 investment in an angel fund launched by TiE Oregon. The TAP Fund will co-invest with TiE Angels Oregon to support early-stage startups.

Many promising technologies created by Oregon startups wither on the vine due to a shortage of high-risk angel capital and many other startups leave the state in search of funding, according to a new report from the Technology Association of Oregon (TAO) – Oregon Angel Investment: The Economic Impact of High-Risk Investment in Oregon's Entrepreneurial Enterprises. The authors highlight the rapidly growing entrepreneurial ecosystem that includes a growing number of willing, talented entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial support organizations (e.g., incubators, accelerators). However, the state still lags significantly behind other areas of the country in terms of actual dollars invested, as well as the number of high-risk investment deals that are made.

In case you missed it, the midterm elections were on Tuesday, resulting in Republicans taking control of Congress, several new governors, and five states endorsing minimum wage increases. Although the 146 state ballot measures up for vote were a quarter-century low, several proposals were relevant to the TBED community, as highlighted in a Digest article last week. Voters ultimately approved many of these proposals, although initiatives related to higher-education in North Dakota and Oregon both failed. 

In Q3 2014, venture capital (VC) investments in the U.S. dropped by 30 percent from Q2 totals, according a new report from CB Insights. Q3 VC deal levels also dropped by 10 percent from Q2 totals. The severe drop, however, can be attributed to Q2 being the most successful VC quarter since Q1 2001. The good news is that the first three quarters of 2014 saw the U.S. VC investment total reach $33.75 billion – an increase of 59 percent compared to the first nine months of last year.