ICCs Support
High-Tech at the Local Level - Statewide
Kentucky's regional Innovation and Commercialization Center
(ICC) program was started in 2001 to facilitate the creation of knowledge-based
companies. (Knowledge-based is defined as "value added through knowledge,
innovation and speed," and knowledge-based companies are often also described
as "high-tech.") The ICC program provides a cohesive, statewide framework to
support such business-building and funding efforts at the regional and local
levels.
The Department of Commercialization and Innovation, within the
Cabinet for Economic Development, contracts with the Kentucky Science and
Technology Corporation (KSTC) to manage the ICC program. A total of six
regional ICCs and seven local Innovation Centers (ICs) across the state operate
to increase the quality of investments flowing to Kentucky high-tech firms.
Each ICC is affiliated with a state university. The program works to increase
statewide knowledge of entrepreneurship, start-up businesses processes, and
investment practices, while providing value-added services to existing
businesses, start-ups, and the investment community.
The ICC/IC program increases the likelihood that Kentucky's
high-tech small businesses can form locally and find private or other external
funding. From 2002 through March 2006, the ICC program has created 134 new
technology-based companies providing a total of 923 higher-paying, high-tech
jobs. Approximately 40 percent of these companies have obtained funding from
private investors. This success is directly related to the efforts of ICC
staffs in supporting their clients, the growing widespread recognition and
support of ICCs from the private sector, and the continued success of KSTC's
workshops.
Kentucky is focusing significant state resources through KSTC
and the ICCs to help new companies fill what the investment community often
calls the "gap," or the stage between concept development and product
commercialization, when many new businesses have trouble obtaining capital.
Kentucky has many banks and venture capital firms that make business
investments, but often these private investors are hesitant to take the risk of
filling the gap for new companies due to basic economics (cost vs. risk. vs.
return on investment). The services and expertise provided by the ICCs
and ICs are highly sought after, since most startup companies do not have the
resources to hire sophisticated and experienced managers or the knowledge of
how to attract the investments needed to take them through the
commercialization process.
Providing funding (from state resources, such as through the Kentucky Enterprise Fund) and talent (through KSTC and the ICC staffs) to Kentucky startup companies is helping new Kentucky companies bridge the "gap" to grow and create many new jobs across the state. |
