and Innovation Program (TCIP

TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATION & INNOVATION PROGRAM

U.C.A. 63N-3-201

The Technology Commercialization and Innovation Program (TCIP) supports the growth and commercialization of promising technologies developed by private sector entrepreneurs and by students and faculty of Utah’s higher education communities . TCIP provides smaller, frequent funding opportunities to a wide range of projects at critical points in their product life cycle .

To be eligible for a TCIP grant, applicants must either be affiliated with a Utah-based university, or be a small business as defined by the U.S. Small Business Administration and whose principal place of business is Utah . Applications are ranked according to: • Potential economic development in the state of Utah (number of jobs, average salary, etc .) • Quality of management and leadership, including experience in startups or commercialization • Strength of the company’s technology and potential for commercialization • Size and growth of the market for the proposed technology • Ability to sell and market the technology and credibility of their

“go-to-market” strategy • Strength of the company’s overall value proposition and competitive advantage

Grant awards are for $100,000. Qualified applicants may be awarded up to $200,000 in TCIP grants over the life of the technology . Mentorship and entrepreneurial curriculum are made available to award recipients as part of the grant program .

FY 2016 Awardees by Cluster

Outdoor Products 1 Energy 2

FY 2016 Summary

In May, past grant recipients participated in a public “demo day .” Representatives from companies presented 10-minute pitches on

Life Science 14 Software/IT 7

their technologies and the progress they made since receiving the grant to various members of the startup and technology ecosystem .

More than 150 companies and university teams submitted applications for the FY 2016 grant cycle . Grants were awarded to 24 technologies, for a total of $2 .4 million in funding . Grant recipients represented a wide range of industries (see chart) .

Outcomes

Past TCIP grant recipients include successful homegrown companies such as Myriad Genetics, BioFire and Enve Composites . GoReact, a webbased presentation feedback service, spun out of Brigham Young University after receiving a TCIP grant in 2011 . Founder and CEO Ken Meyers credits the grant with the company’s success in closing a $250,000 seed funding round that same year . GoReact recently closed on $4 million in venture capital funding, and the company has grown to include 30 employees . iVeena—a company developing drug delivery solutions for treatment of common eye diseases that lead to blindness—received a TCIP grant in 2013 . In September 2015, iVeena closed a $2 .2 million seed round led by Park City Angels, with contributions from the Salt Lake City Angels, University of Utah Technology Venture Corporation, and several prominent ophthalmologists and physicians . The company plans to conduct a pilot clinical study of their lead product in the first quarter of 2017.

Moving Forward

Applications for the FY 2017 grant cycle opened Oct . 1 – Oct . 31, 2016 . TCIP continues to leverage partner organizations to promote its funding, mentorship and curriculum opportunities among the startup community . In addition, TCIP hopes to raise awareness about the quality of companies that have received grants, demonstrating the program’s effective vetting process and ensuring the companies’ continued success . As awareness and accessibility increase, we expect to see increased application volume in the coming cycle .

For more information about the Technology Commercialization and Innovation Program visit business.utah.gov/tcip or contact Clark Cahoon, Fund Manager, at ccahoon@utah .gov, or 801-538-8895