Friday, February 20, 2015

Med-enroll moving company headquarters to Florence County, creating 153 new jobs


Released Feb. 19, 2015 by ColumbiaBusinessReport.com 
Med-Enroll, a startup company specializing in assisting businesses with managing healthcare costs, announced Thursday plans to establish its company headquarters and processing center in Florence County. The $3.5 million investment is expected to create 153 jobs for the area.
“Med-Enroll’s decision to locate in Florence is proof of our efforts to attract new investments and job opportunities to our state,” said Senate President Pro Tem Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence. “South Carolina’s favorable economic conditions and skilled workforce are critical tools for growing and supporting businesses of all types.”
The new facility will be located in the 15,000-square-foot Rainwater Building at 151 W. Evans St. Med-Enroll is currently in preparations to have the historic building restored, with groundbreaking of the project expected to take place later this month.
Hiring for new positions is expected to begin immediately, the company said.
“The state of South Carolina and local officials in Florence have truly shown us their commitment to driving job creation and how business friendly South Carolina can be,” said Med-Enroll president Kerstin Nemec. “We are excited to be starting our venture in Florence and hope that our business will not only provide a positive economic impact in the region, but also serve as a business leader in helping drive the economic redevelopment of downtown Florence.”

Monday, February 16, 2015

Taking America’s Largest Seed Fund on the Road

By Javier.Saade, SBA Official News 
Originally Published: February 12, 2015

Javier Saade, SBA Assoc. Admin.
Office of Investment and Innovation
At the SBA, we oversee America’s Largest Seed Fund, formally known as the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

These highly competitive programs provide the needed impetus for many advanced technology firms to move from ideation to commercialization, supporting our country’s innovation driven economy.  Since the programs’ inception, there have been over 150,000 awards totaling about $40 billion to help this country’s innovators and de-risk technology investments needed to keep our country competitive.   Annually, thousands of American innovators gain access to $2.5 billion in non-dilutive seed capital through the SBIR/STTR programs. While these programs are national in scope, not all communities have fully utilized this opportunity.

We recognize that American innovation is not restricted by geographic boundaries, and to ensure that all of America’s future innovators are aware of this advantageous funding opportunity, SBA and 11 federal agencies are taking the show on the road and embarking on an 18 state SBIR Road Tour.

The SBIR Road Tour “Seeding America’s Future Innovations”, is a nationally focused outreach initiative targeting advanced technology communities, including women-owned and minority-owned firms, in states that have underutilized this funding opportunity. Over the course of 2015, I am glad to announce that more than 20 individual program managers from the 11 participating agencies will travel by motor coach to convey the non-dilutive technology seed fund opportunity.  Each SBIR Road Tour stop is hosted by a local organization committed to supporting technology-based entrepreneurship, and will provide attendees with a coveted local opportunity to hear directly from federal agency program managers, and meet one-on-one with program decision makers.

The first series will take place the week of March 23rd, with stops in Louisville, KY, Nashville, TN, Atlanta, GA, and Columbia, SC.  The next stop is the week of April 27th in Long Beach, MS, Ruston, LA, Oklahoma City, OK, Wichita, KS, and Columbia, MO.  Trips to the North Central region is planned for July and the last to the Northwest in August.

It’s like a rock band tour with a twist - the rock stars are America’s innovators and we want to give you a stage to explore these amazing programs.

 If you’re a small technology firm, innovator, scientist or researcher, I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity. Since the SBIR/STTR programs inception, it has provided seed funding to companies including Qualcomm, iRobot, Symantec, and Genzyme. Through this outreach initiative, I am confident we will continue to expand on the program’s success, and am excited to see what innovation we seed next.

For more information on the SBIR Road Tour and the SBIR program visit www.sbir.gov.