Rev Awarded Build to Scale Grant from U.S. EDA
The U.S. Economic Development Agency announced on November 9 that Cornell is one of 60 organizations awarded a “Build to Scale” grant. The Build to Scale program aims to accelerate technology entrepreneurship by increasing inclusive access to entrepreneurial assistance and startup capital. Cornell and Rev: Ithaca Startup Works is the only organization in New York to be awarded a grant.
Cornell’s grant will support Rev’s Hardware Accelerator expansion to increase the number and diversify the type of hardware entrepreneurs receiving support in Upstate New York. Expanding hardware programming will improve the mechanisms that foster collaboration between field practitioners and lab researchers. This collaboration will benefit both practitioner-driven and research-driven innovation, thereby increasing the odds of market success.
Rev will scale Hardware Accelerators with a three-prong approach:
- Expand the capacity of the current prototyping and manufacturing accelerators
- Develop a new “MedTech” medical device track
- Create a new “Protofacturing” accelerator to bridge the gap between current prototyping and manufacturing offerings
NYSTAR, a division of Empire State Development, has also awarded Cornell a local matching fund of $1 million.
“Rev was one of the first incubators in the nation to have dedicated programs supporting hardware entrepreneurs,” said Ken Rother, Director of Rev, and Hardware Accelerators. “Since 2014, Rev has worked with 125 hardware companies. This grant will allow us to support additional entrepreneurs by growing the existing programming and adding the protofacturing bridge. I am excited about adding the MedTech track to our current CleanTech and AgTech tracks of the protoyping program to support even more entrepreneurs.”