Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

File this under the category of good news for technology-focused entrepreneurs.

In an announcement this week, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) released new funding opportunities for its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, increasing the maximum funding for SBIR/STTR Phase I awards to $305,000 and SBIR/STTR Phase II awards to $1,250,000 to further back development of the creative ideas coming from the nation’s start-ups and small businesses.

Also known as “America’s Seed Fund” powered by NSF, the two programs provide non-dilutive funding for start-ups to develop deep technologies into commercially viable products and services with positive societal impact. The programs focus on companies at the earliest stage of development; most are newly emerging from the private sector, federal labs, and academia. These entrepreneurs are taking scientific and engineering breakthroughs and translating them into new generations of products and services that are commercialized into sustainable businesses.

In the late 1970s, NSF piloted the SBIR program for the federal government. Following formal establishment in 1982, Congress authorized the program and extended it to other federal agencies with significant extramural research and development budgets. The program continues to provide capital to technology start-ups for de-risking technology, building prototypes, and commercializing the resulting products and services for impact. Between FY2016 and FY2023, NSF exceeded 4,000 awards to start-ups and small businesses. Those recipients have gone on to raise approximately $28 billion in private investments during FY 2017 to FY 2023, along with roughly 350 exits, according to Pitchbook data.

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