Two-thirds of SBIR/STTR Matching Fund recipients call East Tennessee home
Eleven of them are current participants or alumni of the "Innovation Crossroads" program at ORNL.
Launch Tennessee (LaunchTN) announced on Friday that the organization had awarded $4.5 million in funding to 30 innovative companies advancing their research and business development efforts in Tennessee.
The investments were made through LaunchTN’s matching program for companies that received funding from the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.
For the second year in a row, LaunchTN received more than 60 applications that collectively represented $12.5 million in demand for the program, but only had funding for a little more than a third of the demand. This year’s recipients include 15 first-time applicants, 11 of which received support preparing their applications through the LaunchTN microgrant program.
More than two-thirds of the 30 recipients call East Tennessee home, and many of them are currently participating in the “Innovation Crossroads” program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory or are alumni of the two-year initiative. They include Addiguru LLC; American Nanotechnologies Inc.; Captis Aire LLC; DayLyte Batteries; Endeavor Composites Inc.; FC Renew LLC; Holocene; Neutroelectric LLC, parent of Becq; Perseus Materials Inc.; Sentinel Devices LLC; and SkyNano Technologies.
The other recipients are as follows:
- East Tennessee – Branch Technology; Covert Defenses LLC; CrossLink Composites Inc.; Orion Therapeutics Inc.; Safire Technology Group Inc.; Serious Healthcare; Silvis Materials; Ultrasonic Technology Solutions; and Veracity Nuclear LLC.
- Middle Tennessee – AgriCapture; Amalgamated Vision LLC; Finally Skincare; HeroWear LLC; Innerworld; MetaMorph Inc.; PreTeL, Inc.; and Statheros LLC.
- West Tennessee – Hera Health Solutions and OculoTherapy LLC.
Since the SBIR/STTR Matching Fund was created in 2017, SBIR/STTR grants received by Tennessee companies have grown from $13 million in 2016 to $35 million in 2022, demonstrating the program’s consistent contribution to Tennessee’s technology sector.
Companies participating in the program have collectively generated 939 jobs, and they have secured $310 million in grants and raised an additional $301 million in capital.
