With 74% of startups reporting a revenue decline since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, Golden, Colorado based Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) accelerated its awards program to provide $900,000 in funding sooner to its cleantech and sustainable agriculture startups. Top priority was to assist their startups retain staff and not be pushed off course as they work to bring their solutions to market.
Established in 2017 The IN2 Channel Partner Awards has a $5 million total fund that supports the commercialization efforts of startups. The committed funding from Wells Fargo is to be distributed over four years to a nationwide network of 63 cleantech and agtech stakeholders within its Channel Partner ecosystem. To date over 200 grants have been given to the nationwide cleantech initiative that supports research and development, investment opportunities, pilot projects, and more.
The winners include: ACRE — New York University, AgLaunch, AgStart, Austin Technology Incubator — University of Texas, BRITE, CCIA, Clean Energy Trust, Cleantech Open (West), Daugherty Water for Food — University of Nebraska, Imagine H2O, Launch Alaska, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), MaRS DD, NCBiotech, NECEC, New Energy Nexus, Texas A&M TEES, and VertueLab.
By adapting its timeline for the early release of funds to startups, IN2 is aligning with the nimbleness required of startups in cases when they are faced with very hard challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Startups have a difficult time getting from prototype to market even under the best of circumstances, and countless promising technologies focused on solutions to pressing global issues are at risk of being lost without immediate help,” said Ramsay Huntley, Sustainable Finance Strategist at Wells Fargo.
The incubator startups represent just a small portion of the small business sector that has been dramatically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Timely receiving of resources is a major factor in them surviving this period of economic crisis.
“Our Channel Partner ecosystem represents a wide range of experts in cleantech, agtech, and finance who understand the challenges startups grapple with during a global economic and health crisis and how they might be mitigated. Innovation can and will persist — even during times of contraction — and this expedited funding is designed to support that,” said Trish Cozart, IN2 program manager at NREL.
Read about New York State’s Cleantech Incubator
