There’s a pool of $2 billion in federal funding available to entrepreneurs. Through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, the government provides financial support to small companies commercializing innovative technologies. Entrepreneurs can get anywhere from $150,000 to $1 million in capital to determine a technology’s feasibility and develop a prototype. It’s a good deal from the U.S. government. Not only don’t entrepreneurs have to repay the money as long as they meet the terms of the funding, but they also don’t give up any ownership of the company. And, when it comes to actually winning funding, entrepreneurs are 100 to 200 times more likely to get an SBIR grant than venture money. Those who do win money however, are more likely to attract money from venture capitalists and angel investors down the road because the government has already vetted the technology and commercialization plan. Hear John Dearborn, President of JumpStart, talk about SBIR funding and how to win your share.
Companies That Are Leveraging Grants
ABSMaterials, Catacel, and MesoCoat are just a few Northeast Ohio companies tapping into this underused resource. Read their stories:
ABSMaterials is revolutionizing water treatment and environmental remediation by providing solutions for removing persistent organic pollutants from water and soil. In 2010, the company was awarded SBIR awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE). Funding from the NSF helped adapt the company’s technology for the remediation of salty fluid trapped in the rock of oil reservoirs, which is extracted during oil and gas production. Called produced water, it’s the largest toxic byproduct produced by the oil industry and is often loaded with chemicals, residual oil, and heavy metals. ABSMaterials’ nano-engineered Osorb material aids the clean-up process of water purification and increases the value of the oil extraction. The grant from the DOE helped the company improve its production process and its technology’s commercial feasibility for use in hydraulic fracturing used to release gas from shale deposits. Managing toxic fluids is one of the most important challenges facing natural gas production in Ohio and nearby states.
Catacel designs and manufactures catalytic heat-exchanging products made from metal foils with catalytic coatings for the fuel cell and industrial hydrogen industries. In 2010 the company made the Inc. 5000 list, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. Catacel has received four SBIR grants from the NSF totaling nearly $1 million. The funding helped it develop high-performance, cost-efficient reactors that are lighter and more energy efficient than alternative solutions. Catacel used its most recent grant to demonstrate proof-of-concept for a carbon dioxide adsorbing reactor that will capture CO2 from power plants and other combustion sources. The company plans to adapt its existing heat-exchanging reactor platform by coating its internal metal foil surfaces with dry sorbent materials and operating it in a unique process cycle, which could potentially reduce coal-fired power plant CO2 emissions by close to 1.7 billion tons annually in the United States.
MesoCoat is fast becoming a world leader in metal protection and repair with revolutionary long-life coating and high-speed cladding technologies. In 2010, it was recognized by the U.S. Army as one of the most successful companies in the SBIR program, and its PComP™ materials, which are environmentally-friendly, cost-effective coating materials, were named the ideal replacement for $3.2 billion per year hexavalent chrome plating. MesoCoat has received several SBIR awards from the DOE and Department of Defense to help commercialize PComP™, which could replace the carcinogenic and toxic hexavalent chrome coatings and expensive carbide coatings that have been used by the army and other industries to protect metals against corrosion. The company was awarded three Phase II grants in 2010 to develop materials and application processes that can perform under extreme conditions like high temperatures and in corrosive environments such as boilers and heat exchangers, oil and gas, and metal processing. Since winning its last award, MesoCoat has signed a co-operation agreement with Petrobras S.A., one of the biggest global players in the oil and gas industry to develop and qualify MesoCoat’s CermaClad™ technology, which uses a proprietary high speed fusion cladding technology to apply corrosion and wear resistant alloys and metals to the internal and external surfaces of metal pipes, tubes, plates, and sheets.
