The City of San Antonio on Thursday approved more than half a million dollars in grants to nine local bioscience and technology companies that have already earned federal support.
The city grants are not huge — $50,000 and $75,000 — but are meant to send a message to these companies: Please stay and grow here.
Bob Hutchens, CEO of StemBioSys, which has developed several stem cell technologies and was granted $50,000, appreciates the support.
“While small, [the grant] is meaningful in that it’s an endorsement that the city really wants to support companies that are doing innovative things here,” he said. “This is a great place to do business. San Antonio has always gone out of its way to help us.”
Giving money to companies that have already secured federal Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) grants, he said, gives the city “assurance that they’re putting money behind something that has been appropriately vetted, and has meaningful science or a meaningful idea behind it.”
Trademarked “America’s Seed Fund,” SBIR/STTR grants are meant to help early-stage companies innovate, meet federal research and development needs and foster technology transfer between small businesses and research institutions.
Winning a SBIR/STTR grant is not easy, Hutchens said. “We’ve definitely lost more than we’ve won.”
San Antonio’s $581,000 matching grant program is considered a pilot; recipient businesses agree to update city staff on how the money will be spent within three months and to answer survey questions at six, 18 and 36 months post-award.
The city’s Economic Development Department gathered feedback early last year from the Small Business Advisory Commission and the City Council’s Economic and Workforce Development Committee on ways to incentivize growth-stage companies headquartered in San Antonio.
The resulting matching grant pilot program will be funded through the department’s Economic Development Incentive Fund. Companies may use the money only on costs directly related to the project or product funded by their federal grant.
The program was on Thursday’s consent agenda, and the council approved it without discussion. StemBioSys will be one of four companies that have been awarded Phase I SBIR/STTR grants to receive $50,000 each. Phase I grants are meant to help companies “establish the technical merit, feasibility and commercial potential” of the product or service under development.
StemBioSys has earned three SBIR/STTR grants to date. The most recent, $300,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is to improve certain treatments used to manage diabetes. The company has already developed several stem cell technologies and recently named a new board chairman to expand the global market for its products.
The other three companies that have received federal grants and are slated to receive the $50,000 city grants include:
- SygnaMap, which received $256,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop an analytical tool to assess biological molecules and increase the efficiency of pharmaceutical practices. The company’s website notes it has won “multiple” SBIR/STTR awards.
- Blocmount Corp. won a similar amount from the NSF for the development of advanced cybersecurity software for industrial control systems.
- Irys Technologies won a $74,852 grant from the Department of Defense to create software and applications to help the U.S. Air Force increase communication and personnel monitoring on its bases. Late last year, Irys acquired military contractor DTSI to help it win more government contracts.
Five companies will get $75,000 from the city to match their Phase II grants, which allow companies to continue their product development based on the results of Phase I efforts.
That includes GaitIQ, a Geekdom-incubated company developing AI technology that will allow providers to monitor a patient’s gait as it relates to reduced cognition and risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. It is just wrapping up research done thanks to an almost $2.5 million Phase II grant from Health and Human Services (HHS). Founder and CEO Rick Morris said the city grant would help the company complete data collection and prepare final reports.
He said smaller grants like the city’s can be very helpful as bridge funding between larger SBIR/STTR grants. Beyond that, he said, “It’s a statement that your local community supports you.”
The other four companies include:
- MedCognition, which received almost $390,000 from HHS, to design realistic person simulators, or “PerSims,” to train emergency medical responders. Located at VelocityTX’s near East Side campus, the company recently developed a baby PerSim.
- Leaptran won a $650,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop more accurate solar forecasting to help utilities capitalize on the renewable energy market. Spun out of UTSA, the company has won awards for its solar forecasting technology.
- EmergenceMed received $1.25 million from the Department of Defense’s Air Force AFWERX Program, to develop a portable airway support device for medical personnel in active combat situations. The company spun off from UT Health San Antonio and UTSA.
- Astroport Space Technologies won a $1.3 million grant from NASA to develop materials for lunar surface landings and launch pads. Located at Port San Antonio, the company’s founder, Sam Ximenes, was inducted into the San Antonio Aviation and Aerospace Hall of Fame.
Also as part of the pilot, the city will distribute grants of $2,000 each to three companies seeking to apply for SBIR/STTR funding: Pirate Wind Turbines, which is developing small wind turbines; Maverick BioMetals, which uses biological enzymes to extract certain metals from ore and Developmate, which consolidates all publicly available real estate data for individual properties in one place.
