Horn Entrepreneurship just won $50K in federal funding from SBA

Horn Entrepreneurship’s Blue Hen Proof of Concept Program (BH-POC) received funding through a U.S. Small Business Administration challenge.

Through the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition, 60 incubators and accelerators around the country won awards of $50,000 each. In all, the SBA is funding $3 million.

“I am proud to announce the winners of the 2019 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition,” Acting SBA Administrator Chris Pilkerton said in a statement. “Over the past five years, the competition has provided awards to innovative and promising accelerators and incubators. This year’s recipients, who will each receive an award of $50,000 from the SBA, are no exception.”

Horn Entrepreneurship was launched in 2012 by entrepreneur and investor Charlie Horn as a program with the University of Delaware’s AlfredLerner College of Business & Economics; today it serves all eight of UD’s colleges.

BH-POC provides gap funding and training for researchers and inventors across the UD campus, supporting building prototypes, proving technology concepts and market exposure.

The awards are designed to function as operating capital for the programs. Accelerators that received awards from the SBA agreed to focus at least 60% of work related to the funding on helping entrepreneurs who are socially and economically disadvantaged, living in an Opportunity Zone.

Other recipients in the region include Mtech Ventures, the incubator located on the campus of University of Maryland College Park offering space and training to entrepreneurs; F3 Tech Accelerator of Easton, Maryland; LifeBridge Health Accelerator Program of Baltimore and FastForward of Baltimore.