WASHINGTON – Today, Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the voice for America’s 32.5 million small businesses in President Biden’s Cabinet, announced the winners of the SBA’s inaugural America’s Seed Fund Startup Expo 2022, an initiative aimed at highlighting innovative domestic startups and supporting them with resources to scale, grow, and thrive.
“Every day, in communities across America, entrepreneurs are solving our nation’s most pressing challenges from climate change to feeding and healing the world. The SBA is committed to helping ensure that those ideas receive the necessary support from federal programs and innovation ecosystems so that they can commercialize and grow into resilient businesses,” said Administrator Guzman. “With the launch of America's Seed Fund Expo, we will showcase exceptional entrepreneurs who have leveraged federal research and development funding through the SBIR Program in key industries and connect them to resources to advance their game-changing innovations right here in America.”
The winning startup companies that will be presenting at America’s Seed Fund Startup Expo 2022 are:
- AgTech and Food Security
- General Probiotics (Saint Paul, MN)
- Nucleic Sensing Systems (Saint Paul, MN)
- Shellfish Solutions d/b/a Blue Trace (Castine, ME)
- Climate and Energy
- Amorphic Tech (Allentown, PA)
- FGC Plasma Solutions (Middleton, MA)
- Hydroplane (Lancaster, CA)
- National Security and Defense
- BadVR (Pacoima, CA)
- Enduralock (Lenexa, KS)
- PSYONIC (Champaign, IL)
- Supply Chain Resiliency
- Chromatic 3D Materials (Golden Valley, MN)
- Delta Development Team (Tucson, AZ)
- Re:3D (Houston, TX
“The giants of future industries so often start as small business startups with big ideas. We know the public and private sectors must work together to nurture these small businesses with big ideas over many years so they may sustain and grow. America’s Seed Fund Startup Expo will lift up big ideas and provide a platform for our national innovation community to support the businesses of tomorrow,” said Bailey DeVries, Associate Administrator, Office of Investment and Innovation.
Highlighting both the geographic reach and inclusivity of America’s Seed Fund, SBA received submissions for the competition from 34 states and included a diversity of applicants, including:
- 4 percent HUBZone-owned businesses
- 27 percent Small Disadvantaged Businesses
- 28 percent Women-owned Small Businesses
- 28 percent Minority-owned Small Businesses
About the Event
The inaugural America’s Seed Fund Startup Expo will be held on a virtual/online platform and take place on Wednesday, May 25, from 12:30 - 4:30 PM EDT. The half-day free virtual event is open to the public. The event will include the winning presentations from up to 12 innovative startups funded through America’s Seed Fund, the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs awards, and feature moderated discussions with industry experts and Expo award winners on the topics of:
The Expo is a free virtual event that is open to the public. Members of the innovation and venture capital community, SBA resource partners, media, and other entrepreneur support organizations are also invited and encouraged to attend. Individuals can register to attend at https://bit.ly/SeedFundExpoRSVP.
In addition, America’s Seed Fund Startup Expo 2022 will:
- Provide broad exposure for innovative small business startups to nationwide innovation networks and local ecosystems across America;
- Provide a platform for connecting innovative startups with networks that can enable these companies to scale, grow, and thrive;
- Raise public awareness of the opportunity to commercialize critical innovation necessary for continued American competitiveness in the global marketplace; and
- Showcase American entrepreneurial ventures at the forefront of AgTech, Climate & Energy, National Security, and Supply Chain Resiliency that are building a better America through innovation and choosing to manufacture their products at home in the U.S.
Background on America’s Seed Fund
Known as “America’s Seed Fund,” the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs’ mission is to support scientific excellence and technological innovation through the investment of federal research funds in critical American priorities to build a strong national economy. These programs represent the nation’s largest source of early-stage research and development funding for small businesses. SBA coordinates the programs, collaborating with 11 federal agencies, that collectively support more than $4 billion a year in federal research and development funding.
Through these highly competitive grant programs, domestic small businesses with the potential for commercialization are encouraged to engage in federal Research and Development (R&D); these programs are an important resource for a wide range of researchers, innovators, inventors, entrepreneurs, and startups working on big ideas. The program’s goals are to:
- Stimulate technological innovation;
- Meet federal research and development needs;
- Foster and encourage participation in innovation and entrepreneurship by women and socially or economically disadvantaged persons; and
- Increase private-sector commercialization of innovations derived from federal research and development funding.
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About the U.S. Small Business Administration
The U.S. Small Business Administration makes the American dream of business ownership a reality. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.
About SBA Office of Investment and Innovation
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Investment and Innovation (OII) leads programs that provide the high-growth small business community with access to two things: financial capital and R&D funds to develop commercially viable innovations. Our work is underpinned by public-private partnerships that help small businesses on their trajectory from idea to IPO. Learn more at www.sba.gov.