Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced recently that the state is continuing to support job growth and economic development by renewing its contract with six Innovation Hubs located throughout the state that help support new businesses and entrepreneurs.

Each hub serves as an entrepreneurial support system throughout its region, providing mentorship and start-up coaching, connections to public and private funding, events and networking opportunities across the state and many other resources to accelerate growth.

“We are securing Kentucky’s place at the forefront of innovation by continuing to invest in new businesses and entrepreneurs,” the Governor said. “The Innovation Hubs provide incredible opportunities for start-up companies to succeed and create quality jobs for Kentucky families.”

The Innovation Hubs are a partnership between the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development Office of Entrepreneurship & Innovation (KY Innovation) and the Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation (KSTC). The program is funded with a total of just over $3 million from KY Innovation and the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

The state contracts were awarded through a competitive request for proposals process conducted earlier this year. The awards and funding are based on each hub’s plans to serve and grow entrepreneurship throughout an entire region. The coverage areas of the six hubs have been remapped to ensure comprehensive services throughout each region and to better allocate resources to all of Kentucky’s 120 counties.

In addition to services provided across the state, the following are some examples of the unique programs, initiatives and partners for each of the individual hubs:

• Sprocket (headquartered in Paducah) offers a co-working space, the Next50K competition, which provides funding for startups to relocate to Paducah, numerous educational and networking events, and will unveil a virtual community platform to connect entrepreneurs across the region to its resources in 2024-25. The hub will serve 22 counties in West Kentucky.
• Amplify (Louisville) offers a mentor/peer network for founders, a statewide startup job board and venture investment readiness assessment tools, several of which are available through Amplify’s Ecosystem OS online platform. The hub also operates the Venture Connectors, a networking organization that brings together entrepreneurs and investors. The hub will serve 12 counties in its region.
• CREATE (Bowling Green), headquartered at Western Kentucky University’s Innovation Campus, offers a membership-based co-working space, the CO/CREATE Talent Database to identify professionals interested in moving to the area and numerous business recruitment and networking services. CREATE will serve 12 counties in Western Kentucky.
• SOAR (Pikeville) offers services including its “Complete Guide for Entrepreneurship in Eastern Kentucky,” technical assistance services, including market research and pitch preparation, fundraising bootcamps and other support programs, and events like the IGNITE Innovation Workshop Series and the Startup Appalachia Pitch Competition. SOAR will serve 29 counties in Eastern Kentucky.
• Blue North (Covington) initiatives include entrepreneurs in residence and university fellows, the NKY Entreneur Fund, the GrowthX Revenue Accelerator that provides marketing and sales coaching and the Student Venture Capital Summit. The hub will serve 17 counties in Northern Kentucky.
• Awesome Inc. (Lexington) initiatives include the Awesome Fellowship (accelerator), coding education, the KY Entrepreneur Hall of Fame and community events like the “5 Across” business pitch competition. Awesome Inc. will partner with Small Business Development Centers, universities across its region, BaseHere co-working space and Middle Tech Podcast. The hub will serve 28 counties in Central and Southern Kentucky.

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