Part of $5M economic relief package from the Governor
COLUMBIA, Md. (July 19, 2021)—TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, announced today its Rural and Underserved Business Recovery from Impact of COVID-19 (RUBRIC) program has awarded grants to 45 Maryland companies. RUBRIC was created as an economic relief initiative designed to benefit socially and economically disadvantaged and rural early-stage technology-based businesses hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our administration is committed to growing the state’s economy, which included providing targeted emergency economic relief funding for Maryland businesses negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Governor Larry Hogan.
Funding for the RUBRIC program was announced in December 2020 as part of Governor Hogan’s state emergency economic relief package.
“The RUBRIC program focused on companies that had the highest barriers to traditional financing, but are still expected to scale to the next phase of fundraising,” said TEDCO’s CEO and executive director, Troy LeMaile-Stovall. “It was important for us to target companies that were considered socially or economically disadvantaged as well as those in the rural areas of Maryland that were hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis.”
Grants were awarded to the following companies:
1. Baltimore City (5)
c. Multisensor Diagnostics, LLC (Aidar Health, Inc.)
e. Slow Talk
2. Baltimore County (7)
a. Ardent Security LLC (Ardent Privacy)
e. MindStand Technologies, Inc.
f. Tight and Right Hair Revolutions, Inc.
3. Carroll County (1)
a. Counter-Intuitive Cooking Inc.
4. Charles County (1)
a. Opal HTM
5. Dorchester County (1)
6. Frederick County (8)
a. Azabu Distilling Co., LLC
c. CarrTech
d. HBVtech
e. OncoGone, Inc.
h. Tao Treasures, LLC d/b/a Nanobiofab
7. Harford County (1)
8. Howard County (2)
9. Montgomery County (12)
a. Harpcan LLC d/b/a CoTripper
h. PepVax, Inc.
j. Pet Connect
l. Sparo
10. Prince George’s County (5)
a. 99 Ways Entertainment LLC
d. International Products Generated, Inc. d/b/a IPGen
e. Ovalz, Inc.
11. Queen Anne’s County (1)
12. Wicomico County (1)
a. Marnane Agricultural Drone Technologies (MADTECH)
“The applications for the RUBRIC program showcased just how amazing the entrepreneurial community is within the state of Maryland,” said Sukari Brown, RUBRIC program manager, TEDCO. “I was impressed by the kinds of problems these companies were identifying and the innovative solutions they developed. It was hard to choose at times, given the quality of all of the applications we received, but that is an amazing indicator of the diverse pipeline in the area. I am thrilled to be a part of such an amazing effort to provide funding to companies led by socially/economically disadvantaged and rural founders in order to alleviate some of the negative impacts due to COVID-19. I believe we have a group of RUBRIC awardees who will thrive and be a strong signal that Maryland is a great incubator for early-stage tech companies.”
Funds for the RUBRIC program have been fully deployed and the program will no longer be accepting applications. For information about the program, please visit https://www.tedcomd.com/funding/rural-and-underserved-business-recovery-impact-covid-19-rubric.
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