Tech and biotech start-ups get a big boost in Columbus, OH
A space named "Software Alley" and new life science labs are planned with support from the city and and The Ohio State University.
The City of Columbus, OH, and The Ohio State University (OSU) are partnering with a venture development firm to nurture tech and biotech start-up space in Franklinton and on campus.
With city help, the Columbus-based Rev1 Ventures plans to lease 43,000 square feet late next summer in Franklinton’s Peninsula development for its own offices and a space called “Software Alley” designed to nurture tech start-ups. Following that move, Rev1 plans to partner with OSU to create labs for life science start-ups in the university’s Carmenton tech and bio campus.
“This is the first type of space we’ve had like this in the Columbus region,” said Rev1 Chief Executive Officer Tom Walker. “Start-ups need flexible space to grow their companies.”
The two spaces will replace Rev1’s current space with the firm moving its 25 to 30 staff members to the first floor of the Peninsula office and create co-working and event space on the second floor for tech start-ups.
Rev1 will pay for the space in part from donations from the city, which has given between $188,000 and $500,000 each year to Rev1 since 2007. The city plans to give $250,000 to the company this year, the same amount it has given for the past six years.
In the second part of Rev1’s plans, the firm’s Kinnear Road wet lab space will be replaced with new labs in what is called the Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Center, being designed now for the Carmenton campus.
“Our current space on Kinnear has generic wet labs,” Walker said. “Traditionally those have been the main wet labs for advanced science spinouts. They were built in the ’90s. The space has been amazing but we’re reaching 30, 35 years old there.”
The new wet lab space in Carmenton is two to three years off, Walker said.
Rev1 has supported more than 1,400 startups that have generated more than $3.3 billion in impact in central Ohio, according to a news release announcing the expansion. Among the startups is the Columbus firm MentorcliQ, which operates software to help companies manage mentoring programs.
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