Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
The launch of the Green Village Philadelphia sustainable business incubator was practically a surprise party — without any of the awkward entrances.
In truth, the surprise wasn’t a complete shock since more than a few people seemed to know that Green Village, which Technically Philly first visited in January, and GoodCompany Ventures, the three-year-old bootcamp-style accelerator for social enterprises, were planning to announce their partnership at the event.
Small businesses would have an easier time raising money and entrepreneurs would have a greater opportunity to solicit investments online through a roster of bills approved today in the House of Representatives.
In uncharacteristic bipartisan spirit, the House voted 390-23 to approve the legislative package. The only no votes came from Democrats even though President Barack Obama has voiced support for the specific parts of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. Some Democrats, even those who voted for it, thought the measure needed to be broader.
We report daily about all the amazing companies in and around Boston, but it’s useful every now and again and look at the broader economic picture. It’s obvious to most of us here that the Massachusetts economy is incredibly innovative, but two recently released studies confirm it.
Consider this the case for why we live and work in the most vibrant state economy in the country.
Ottawa plans to replace the immigrant entrepreneur program it shelved last year with a new system aimed at identifying and speeding the path for “high value innovators,” Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says.
The previous program, in place for a decade, “was administratively very burdensome and underwhelming in terms of the results.” When it was suspended last July, it had a backlog of nearly 10,000 applicants, and with an average of about 1,000 to 1,500 approvals a year it would have taken nearly eight years to clear, even without new applications. What will happen to the older files when the new program is launched remains unclear, Mr. Kenney said in an interview.
Ben Milne, a 29-year-old college dropout with a furry goatee and no background in finance, is on his second and third meetings with some of the world's biggest banks.
He thinks he has convinced them he's "not full of it."
This is no small thing. The startup company he founded, Dwolla, has introduced an Internet-based payment system that aims to bypass credit card companies. Not only that, but to work properly, it will require rewiring a crucial hub of the U.S. financial system known as the Automated Clearing House, a network banks use to transfer payments electronically, although usually with a delay of several days.
The methodology behind this list of startups had two simple directives. First, the startup had to have African roots and secondly it had to be brilliant.
More specifically, we were looking for that type of brilliance that exudes intelligence, talent, quality or simply, something fresh. Of course brilliance, like most things in life, is subjective, so we went into this journey with an open mind. Tabula rasa if you will and we hoped to recognise brilliance when we saw it. We did, over and over again.
Canada lags behind many of its First World counterparts when it comes to business innovation, and urgently needs to improve its performance if it is to remain competitive and attractive to investment. The federal government's Expert Panel Report on Federal Support to Research and Development has recommended several policy initiatives that governments need to enact to close the gap.
The panel's two most promising recommendations are: (1) the consolidation of research and development spending programs at the federal level and (2) the adoption of smart procurement as a means of spurring innovation in the non-government sector.
Every startup needs to understand that the customer paradigm has dramatically shifted over the past two years with pervasive social networks and smartphones. The customer base is no longer a mass audience that can be driven by mass media, but a dynamic network of individual customers who interact with each other, and expect to interact with you as a business.
If your business doesn’t connect with your customers, individually and as a community, demanding customers will not only ignore you, but will actively keep other customers away. For example, while the customer paradigm is shifting rapidly to smartphones, a survey last year indicated that just 12 percent of small businesses had that reach.
Late last week, APRA-E issued a new Open Funding Opportunity Announcement for $120 million in early-stage research projects leading to “breakthrough energy technologies.” ARPA-E says it anticipates making approximately 60-80 awards under this FOA, with individual awards may vary between $250,000 and $10 million.
According to the FOA document (pdf) the funding agreements can cover periods that range from 12-36 months, starting Jan. 1, 2013. This FOA is for new applicants only and excludes applicants seeking renewal or supplemental ARPA-E awards.
The Angel Resource Institute (ARI), Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and CB Insights today announced findings from the first Halo Report, a collaborative effort to raise awareness of early stage investment activities by angel investment groups. The research series highlights angel investment activity and trends in North America and provides much sought after data that has not been previously available to entrepreneurs or early stage investors.
Halo Report Highlights:
Angel groups are active throughout the U.S. in 2011
Just how active are “angel” groups—the associations often made up of wealthy individuals who want to fund very young start-ups—these days? They haven’t been shy, according to a new report that is set to be released Thursday at the Angel Capital Association Summit in Austin, Texas.
The report—the first one to be compiled by the Angel Resource Institute, Silicon Valley Bank and CB Insights–looked at 573 start-up deals nationwide in 2011 where $873.3 million was invested by angel groups, often along with individual angel investors and other institutional investors. The report found that angel groups bumped up the median size of their fundings over the past year to $700,000, up 40% from the median $500,000 round size in 2010.
Growing older and being overweight are not necessarily associated with a decrease in mental well-being, according to a cross-cultural study looking at quality of life and health status in the US and the UK.
The study, led by Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick, analysed lifestyle and health patterns in more than 10,000 people in both countries and their links to participants’ mental and physical quality of life and health status.
Quality of life was evaluated using a measure which takes in eight different factors including perception of general health, pain, social functioning and mental health.
Research universities are increasingly critical hubs in the ecosystem of global innovation. Broad commercialization of scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs is a rising priority for many if not most research universities. The licensing of new products and services to existing companies - or to university-affiliated start-up companies - is often viewed as an important potential source of new revenue but it is increasingly evaluated in the context of the university's broader role in the local and global innovation ecosystem.
Angel investors are flocking to healthcare.
A new report shows that healthcare companies received a greater percentage (37 percent) of angel investment dollars than startups from any other industry in 2011.
Within the healthcare sector, medical devices dominated angel investment. Sixty percent of healthcare investments went to medical devices and equipment, far exceeding pharmaceuticals, drugs and biotechnology, which received about 21 percent of all healthcare dollars.
Anyone trying to start a company and raise money has heard of the valley of death, and there are a multitude of efforts nationwide to bridge that gap between the need for early stage capital and its availability.
In Minnesota, the Minnesota Angel Network (MNAN) is trying to do its part in helping connect fledgling companies with capital. The group, which was formed last August, functions as much as an accelerator for young companies as it does as a screening tool for angel investors. The goal is to select worthy startups looking to raise between $50,000 and $4.5 million, and put them through an educational program that will fill the holes in their business plans and get them ready to face the big, bad world of fundraising.
Each time new private investing data comes out, it seems like it’s another chance for California to show its dominance. That’s the case with the Halo Report, but this particular report also reveals some interesting trends in angel investing.
Put together by the Angel Resource Institute, Silicon Valley Bank, and the data services firm CB Insights, this report’s data comes from 2011 deals with at least one angel group participating. Last year, that amounted to 573 investments and $873.3 million.
The economic downturn affected American families' finances on a variety of fronts, and reminded us of the importance of preparing for a rainy day by not overextending ourselves financially and having a monetary safety net in place. Yet have we given equal thought to the important role that our children's career paths can play, not only in their economic futures, but in the economic future of our nation? The recession may have made us more fiscally prudent, but did it make us too scared to dream?
American innovation is at the core of what makes us great -- the will to take chances and go all in on an idea. For us to maintain our status as an economic superpower, we need to keep dreaming, and dream big.
The Obama Administration today announced a $15 million multi-agency Rural Jobs and Innovation Accelerator challenge to spur job creation and economic growth in distressed rural communities. This competition, which is being funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), was designed by the Taskforce for the Advancement of Regional Innovation Clusters and the White House Rural Council.
President Obama recently announced the challenge as part of the Administration’s “We Can’t Wait” efforts to strengthen the economy, create jobs and support business growth, particularly expanding opportunity for rural Americans and supporting new and innovative businesses nationwide.
Research parks are helping communities kick start their economies, create jobs and attract new companies to their region.
Serving as economic engines, parks are credited with creating local, regional and statewide jobs. One example of this is the University Research Park at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The park contributes more than $825 million to Wisconsin’s economy each year, according to a study conducted by NorthStar Economics Inc., of Madison. The study also found that the park supports nearly 9,300 jobs statewide, and generates $43 million in state and local tax revenue each year.
Madison isn’t the only community seeing results.
Our goal at DreamIt is simple: Help great people with great ideas build great companies. We've got some exciting news to share with you.
Introducing DreamIt Access!
Fresh off the heels of a successful inaugural Minority Entrepreneur Accelerator Program, we challenged ourselves to do more, much more. Last week, we announced a rebranded and expanded program, DreamIt Access (TechCrunch coverage here). Each upcoming DreamIt accelerator cycle will feature at least 5 minority-led startups. Over the next 12 months we expect to launch up to 15 minority-led startups and look forward to increasing levels of success with the companies. The first class included ElectNext, Kwelia, metaLayer, Qwite, and ThaTrunk. Each of these companies were tremendous selections for us and are continuing their momentum post-DreamIt.
