I-Corps PR gets $50K SBA accelerator fund grant
SBA District Director Yvette T. Collazo
The U.S. Small Business Administration announced the 20 winners of the fourth Growth Accelerator Fund competition, including I-Corps Puerto Rico, which will receive a $50,000 cash prize from the federal agency.
The accelerators represent a broad set of industries and sectors from manufacturing to tech start-ups to farming with a diversified range of demographic groups.
“We are pleased to announce that one of our local accelerators, I-Corps Puerto Rico, is among this year’s winners,” said SBA District Director Yvette T. Collazo.
“The SBA continues to help the start-up community grow by supporting organizations where innovators are born, and where they thrive and gain the competitive edge that makes them stand out in today’s entrepreneurial ecosystem,” she said.
In accepting these funds, the accelerators will be committing to bi-annual reporting for one year and will be required to report metrics on jobs created, funds raised, startups launched and corporate sponsors obtained among other pieces of information.
These metrics will allow the SBA to maintain a useful dataset of accelerators and their impact, and to develop long-term relationships with the startups and constituents in these innovative and entrepreneurial communities.
Winners were selected through a two-tier review panel process with experts in entrepreneurship, investing and business plans both inside and out of the federal government. The finalist expert judges reviewed the applications and pitch videos submitted by the finalists.
The purpose of the competition is to draw attention and funding to parts of the country where there are gaps in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. There are entrepreneurial activities taking place in all 50 states, but some are better supported by private sector ecosystems than others.
