COLUMBIA, Md., (November 1, 2024) — TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, announced receiving $1.8 million in funding over five years to support the UpRise for Equitech program through the Small Business Association’s (SBA) Regional Innovation Cluster (RIC) Network Award.
“Through this award, TEDCO and UpSurge will be able to offer more support to the various startups and small businesses across the state,” said Troy LeMaile-Stovall, CEO of TEDCO. “And through this support, Maryland will continue forward, becoming a collaborative hub of innovative businesses and growth.”
The initiative will be led by UpSurge Baltimore and supported through a collaboration with TEDCO to uplift the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson Metropolitan Statistical Area (Baltimore MSA) and provide full-lifecycle support to entrepreneurs and startups in the area. By utilizing the two ecosystem builders, the UpRise for Equitech innovation cluster will have a multi-pronged approach that will include: assessment and roadmap development; mentoring services; network and resource matching; community building; and specialized programming.
The SBA launched the RIC initiative in 2010 to support innovative small business and entrepreneur support organizations across the nation. Though this program, geographic hubs for networking and resources are enabled, allowing them to scale current and future programming to reach more small businesses in the area.
This most recent round of awardees includes 13 other entities; to learn more about the SBA Awards and the other awardees, click here.