SBIR/STTR Innovation Summit Talks Funding for Security Start-ups

Posted on 12/03/2015 by Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce

SBIR/STTR Innovation Summit

The Chamber's Michele Skelding, SVP of Global Technology and Innovation, spoke at the Fireside Keynote State of the Technological Innovation Ecosystem with Ray Johnson, Former CTO of Lockheed Martin, moderated by John Williams, Director of Innovation for the Office of Investment and Innovation SBA.

Michele also led a seed and venture capital financing panel yesterday at the SBIR/STTR Innovation Summit in Austin with experts Krishna Srinivasan, General Partner of LiveOak Venture Partners; Aziz Gilani, Partner of Mercury Fund; and John Stockton, Managing Partner of ATP Fund. The discussion was focused on uncovering how best to find and approach potential angel investors and VC investors after being awarded a federal grant.

Innovation is the critical ingredient to creating and growing a successful start-up. But innovation requires money that can be very hard to find, especially if your innovation is of high-risk/high-reward. Bringing global innovation, business and defense leadership together, this summit worked to accelerate state-of-art technology solutions in support of national security.

Goal of the conference

Since its creation in 1982, the small business research program has awarded more than $40 billion in funding to innovative small businesses. The program typically distributes 5,500 unique grants per year, with an average phase I investment of over $150,000 and a second phase of $1 million. This early stage capital has helped to generate over 70,000 patents and has led to the creation of over 700 public companies.

Texas companies have claimed $1.5 billion of that $40 billion total, ranking it 7th among all states. These funds went to over 1,000 Texas companies. Considering Texas’ population (second in size only to California), its world class university and research institutions and strong business environment, there is significant potential to greatly increase funding to Texas-based companies.


Related Categories: Chamber, Innovate Austin