TechColumbus Invests $1.6M in Nine Local Tech Companies

TechColumbus has announced results of its latest round of funding.  Nine companies in Central Ohio will receive funding through two programs – the TechGenesis Grant Program and the TechColumbus Regional Commercialization Fund.  The investments, totaling $1.6 million, are financed by the Ohio Third Frontier Program and 17 local investors including the City of Columbus, Franklin County, the cities of Dublin, New Albany and Upper Arlington, The Columbus Chamber, OhioHealth, Nationwide, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Ohio TechAngels.  
Three companies received TechColumbus Regional Commercialization Funding of up to $500,000.  These include: Cardiox Corp.(Dublin), Toobla, Inc. (Columbus) and Znode, Inc. (Dublin).   
The purpose of the RCF is to enable promising technology startups to complete the steps necessary to attract follow-on funding from venture capital firms and other sources in order to accelerate the growth of new businesses and jobs in the Central Ohio region.  The RCF focuses on incubating phase technology startups that have the reasonable expectation of reaching $30 million in revenue in 3-7 years, and address a market of at least $100 million.
Six other companies received TechGenesis grants of up to $50,000 each.  TechGeneis grants focus primarily on providing resources to address those companies in the imagining phase of development.  Grants will be used to explore the commercial applicability and potential of an idea in order to draw more innovators into the commercialization process while providing a source for more deal flow within the region.  
Central Ohio companies receiving TechGenesis grants include: Epico, LLC (Columbus), JoeMetric, Inc. (Columbus), Joint Sound Holdings LLC (New Albany), NanoMed, Inc. (Columbus), ThermoBuffer LLC (Columbus) and Vision Optimization LLC (Columbus).