The Howard County Economic Development Authority is one of 50 winners in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Growth Administration Fund competition, County Executive Ken Ulman announced Thursday.
The county agency’s Accelerator for the Commercialization of Technology was the only Maryland program to receive the $50,000 cash award.
“We created the ACT with the goal of launching businesses that would produce 21st century jobs for Howard County and Maryland, and this award from the SBA will go a long way toward helping us reach that goal,” Ulman said in a release.
Seven judges from inside and outside government evaluated the applications and pitch videos from the 100 finalists (chosen from 800 applicants), according to officials.
“We’ve seen the enormous success of the accelerator model in communities like Silicon Valley,” SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet said in the release. “We believe we can export this type of sophisticated support structure across the country to help start-ups become commercially viable and create jobs more quickly.”
As part of the award, ACT will have to report its quarterly metrics on job creation, fundraising, new startups and sponsorships back to the SBA, according to the release.
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