Florida Tech Wins $50,000 Award at Growth Accelerator Fund Competition
By Space Coast Daily // May 14, 2024
education spotlight
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – The U.S. Small Business Administration announced that Florida Tech’s weVENTURE Women’s Business Center, in concert with the university’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovative Design, will be awarded Stage One funding under its 2024 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition.
Florida Tech will receive a $50,000 cash award from the SBA for its “impactful and inclusive approach to nurturing a collaborative national innovation ecosystem to advance small business research and development from ideas to the market,” the federal agency said in its announcement.
The funding will be used to convene a two-day Florida TeXelerator Summit at the CAMID facility in Palm Bay.
The event, scheduled for July 15-16, will bring together innovative businesses and community partners for informative sessions about the unique Space Coast ecosystem and the new TeXelerator program, which applies weVENTURE WBC’s proven IGNITE 360 method for business mentorship to high-tech, innovative businesses in partnership with CAMID’s Design> Make> Manufacture> Coaching (DMMC) support.
The new TeXelerator Program will help accelerate small-business growth by leveraging advanced manufacturing technology, research and design, business strategy coaching and commercialization to create a vibrant and diverse community of innovators.
Businesses attending the TeXelerator Summit in July will be invited to apply for the inaugural cohort of the TeXelerator Program beginning in September.
As befits an event backed by weVENTURE WBC, the Summit would have a special focus on female founders and would seek to attract and showcase female innovators from across Florida.
“This summit represents a strategic initiative by Florida Tech to serve as a community hub of innovation and technological development,” said CAMID Director Juan C. Avendano.
“The synergy between weVENTURE WBC’s mission to empower underrepresented entrepreneurs and CAMID’s technological expertise creates a unique opportunity to drive the economic development of the region.”
Kathryn Rudloff, executive director of weVENTURE WBC, said Florida Tech stands ready to be a community catalyst where business expertise and engineering excellence work hand in hand to help launch the future.
“As the resident STEM university that helps educate this high-tech workforce, Florida Tech, along with weVENTURE WBC and the Bisk College of Business, is ready to help attract regional and statewide business innovators, funders and economic development professionals interested in engaging more with the unique engineering resources and talent on Florida’s Space Coast,” Rudloff said.
Already weVENTURE and CAMID (pictured above) have partnered for impactful events supporting small businesses such as the 2023 Hispanic Business Summit and collaborations with the Greater Palm Bay Chamber of Commerce.
“This new funding from Growth Accelerator will allow us to expand our efforts to serve not only Brevard County but the entire state,” said Marifer Fernanda Sagastume, community coordinator and STEM designer at CAMID.
Sagastume and Graduate Student Assistants Julia Martinus and Anna Wojdecka were critical to the proposal’s success.
Stage One winners were selected through a multi-tier review panel process with experts in entrepreneurship, business, innovation and strategic planning both inside and out of the federal government. Florida Tech intends to apply for Stage Two funding, which would provide additional support for the TeXelerator program.
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