INNCUVATE AWARDED $400,000 GRANT FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE TO SCALE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER PROGRAM

Inncuvate announced today a $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) to help underrepresented entrepreneurs build scalable and competitive businesses based on government intellectual property. The award is part of a larger initiative to advance the global competitiveness of minority business enterprises (MBEs) through programs in emerging technologies and other high-tech industries.

“Government technology transfer programs provide wealth creation opportunities for all,” said Inncuvate Founder and Managing Partner, Mark Lawrence. “With the right amount of exposure, support and growth, entrepreneurs of color can change the trajectory of their individual lives, and en masse, entire communities. As martyrs of equity, our goal is to facilitate opportunities for inclusion in the entrepreneur ecosystem, and to fuel the growth of technology-based enterprises as economic development and community growth engines for communities that are often overlooked. With that said, we are particularly grateful for MBDA’s support of this very important work.”

Inncuvate connects underserved communities with the talent and resources of higher education institutions, community development organizations and economic development programs. It is a professional services firm and venture studio that affords underrepresented founders and peer networks access to mentorship and programming to accelerate growth.

MBDA’s grant will support the expansion of the Ignite Tech Program developed at Bowie State University (BSU). Managed by Inncuvate, Ignite Tech is a partnership between the Maryland Center at BSU, and the National Security Agency (NSA) Technology Transfer Office’s Scalable Partnerships Assessing Research Commercialization (SPARC) Program — a partnership between the NSA and U.S. colleges and universities that applies student-led research to assess the commercial potential of agency-patented technologies.

The objective of the program is to pair MBEs with students and government Intellectual Property (IP) inventors to explore the customer demand for intellectual property (technologies). Ultimately, the goal is to:

• Increase the creation of more product-based MBEs
• Accelerate innovation by widening the participation in federal innovation challenges and opportunities, as well as providing a structured customer discovery program
• Create an end-to-end process for more sustained interaction between MBEs, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and federal laboratories
• Increase the licensing of government IP
• Create a local economic development engine of tech-based companies that are anchored by HBCUs
• Provide students with real world hands experience conducting market research and branding technology
• Enhance the career pathways to entrepreneurship for students at HBCUs

To learn more about Inncuvate, contact Mark Lawrence, Managing Director mlawrence@inncuvate.com