It is a big week for the Austin-turned-San Antonio tech company Easyexpunctions.com.
After moving to San Antonio, in part due to generous incentive packages proposed by the City of San Antonio and Bexar County, the startup received a $50,000 grant from the County and is awaiting the City’s approval of a $100,000 grant Thursday.
The incentive packages are part of a larger effort by the City and County to attract IT and cybersecurity companies to San Antonio and keep them here.
“Austin is a market where tech companies believe they need to be. This is without realizing the special transformation that is happening in San Antonio,” stated Easyexpunctions.com Founder and CEO Yousef Kassim in a news release. Kassim is a Trinity University and St. Mary’s University Law graduate.
“As a young and growing company, San Antonio offered a great environment of opportunity and support system that will allow us to continue to grow, expand and create more jobs in San Antonio.”
Easyexpunctions.com’s $50,000 grant from the County’s Innovation Fund requires them to create at least 20 new jobs and remain in Bexar County for three years at minimum. The company, which operates out of the Vogue building on 600 Navarro St. alongside several other tech businesses, works to remove criminal offenses from customer’s records.
The company will likely receive even more incentives on Thursday when City Council will vote on a performance-based grant for the startup for up to $100,000 over three years. To earn the grant, the company must add up to 42 new full-time positions — not including the eight existing employees who moved from Austin in 2016 — over the three year period and to work with the City to develop a program to provide free or low-cost services to low income or unemployed individuals in San Antonio.
The startup is also working to streamline the County’s expunction process to increase the number of filed expunctions and nondisclosures.
The collaboration between the City, County and Easyexpunctions.com is the first of many future collaborations between the governing bodies and tech startups, said Danny Chavez, San Antonio Economic Development Foundation (SAEDF) vice president of business recruitment.
“I think it is a testament to the capabilities of our new tech district as well as the economic community in San Antonio,” he said.
Bexar County’s $1 million Innovation Fund addresses four focus areas: the recruitment of new companies, expansion of local companies, talent competitions, and talent development through education and media branding. The fund’s first initiative was the Tech Fuel Startup Competition, which paid out $50,000 total to the top three placing local startups in an effort to incentivize growing businesses locally.
County officials said in February they believed the fund would pay for itself by bringing talent, and therefore investment, to the city.
The company provides expunction services for residents in Texas, Ohio, Illinois, and Maryland.
“The Innovation Fund was created to encourage tech companies just like Easyexpunctions.com to relocate to San Antonio,” stated Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. “This young and growing IT company brings the promise of new, good paying tech jobs for our community.”
Top image: Easyexpunctions.com Founder and CEO Yousef Kassim speaks Tuesday morning at Bexar County Commissioners Court. Photo by Camille Garcia.
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