The Innovation Center @3401, the new incubator from Drexel University and the University City Science Center, hopes to be the entrepreneurial hub of University City’s “Innovation District.”
“We want to be the petri dish of the broader Innovation District vision,” said Kara Lindstrom, who runs Drexel’s ExCITe Center research lab on the first floor of the 3401 Market building that houses the incubator.
The plans behind the Innovation District, a corridor of tech businesses, research initiatives and educational buildings to revitalize West Philadelphia, have risen to national prominence with stories in the New York Times and most recently, Politico.
The two-floor, 17,500-square-foot incubator opened its doors last month and has held a series of morning open houses to show off the space. RSVP for the last open house on July 17 by emailing Kristin Hart at khart@sciencecenter.org
The Innovation Center @3401 has lots of glass, following the design trend in local incubators. (Photo courtesy of the University City Science Center)
The space has all the makings of a coworking space, with private offices, an open collaborative space, whiteboard walls and a shared conference room. Memberships start at $300/month.
Early stage accelerator DreamIt Ventures has its own wing, where its fall class will have office space. Companies in DreamIt’s health accelerator, DreamIt Health, will also use the collaborative space, as will the health IT companies in the Science Center’s new Digital Health Accelerator. Mobile enterprise company Point.io, which moved from Wayne, Pa., also has its own wing. Pharma giant Merck also has an office in the space, though the two staffers we met there last week declined to elaborate on their presence, saying that they needed to clear it with their press team.
IC@3401 still has space for more companies, said Hart, who runs the center.
Apply here
Companies in the Science Center’s Digital Health Accelerator will operate out of the Innovation Center @3401’s open space. (Photo courtesy of the University City Science Center)
Companies now at the incubator are a mix of earlier stage companies and more established life sciences companies with headquarters in the suburbs. They include:
- Health Next
- Blinky
- Enterprise Law Associates, which provides legal counsel to life sciences and tech businesses
- TravelCare, a medical information software provider that had office space in Langhorne, Pa., incubator Novotorium
- Sensory Technologies, a Canadian company that participated in the Science Center’s Canadian health IT incubator
- Point.io
- Merck
Point.io has an office within the Innovation Center @3401.
Before you go...
Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.
3 ways to support our work:- Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
- Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
- Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
Join our growing Slack community
Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!
How one-click job listings overtook the process — and slowed down tech hiring
Pennsylvania public spaces are getting $45M to boost internet access and close the digital divide
EDA director’s advice for Philly to land federal Tech Hubs funding: Make the pitch ‘crisper’
