Leahy Secures $750,000 For Technology Incubator

VCET’s Three Year Anniversary Marked By Job Growth
With New Graduates, New Tenants And Nearly $19 Million In Investments

 

BURLINGTON (Monday, July 28, 2008) -- U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy visited the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET) in Burlington Monday to tell VCET board members and clients that he had secured a new $750,000 Small Business Administration grant to help the incubator operate for the next three years.   As the Center celebrates its third anniversary, Leahy also announced that two recent tenants had expanded their businesses outside of the incubator and that three new businesses have joined the incubator program.

 

Since helping to found VCET in 2005, Leahy has secured $4.3 million to operate the incubator on the Trinity Campus of the University of Vermont.  Leahy secured the latest $750,000 grant during the 2008 appropriations process.  These funds have been used to identify and develop innovative technologies into Vermont businesses.  The federal investment has helped create 85 jobs within 14 companies and stimulate $18.7 million in investment in VCET client companies.  VCET is an independent non-profit organization affiliated with UVM offering emerging entrepreneurs office space, laboratory space and business consultation services.  Currently the Center has ten active clients.

 

“In its short life, VCET has married many brilliant ideas with some of our state’s best business development minds,” said Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  “The federal government’s investment here has created a way to harness the myriad of inventions and ideas coming out of UVM and Vermont’s colleges and universities so that Vermonters can capitalize and invest in them, growing Vermont’s economy, creating jobs and shaping the future of Vermont.” 

 

“VCET is creating next generation jobs for this generation of Vermonters,” said VCET Board President Frank Cioffi.  “In three short years, this center has made a significant impact on Vermont’s economy – helping 14 companies grow, creating new jobs and stimulating new capital investment.”

 

During Monday’s announcement, Leahy congratulated representatives of two VCET start-ups -- PIEmatrix and Global Classroom -- on their recent graduations from the incubator.  PIEmatrix, headed by Barre native Paul Dandurand, helps organizations reduce project risk with an online collaboration platform that brings best practice process standards to all team members.   The firm

finished a 26 month incubation period in June and expanded to a new Burlington office where they currently employ 10 people.   Global Classroom, created by Burr Warne who transplanted his family from Atlanta, creates online educational experiences and recently graduated out of VCET into a Burlington location with 23 employees. 

 

Leahy also announced that three new companies were starting up at VCET, Viridis Diagnostics, Bell Global Systems, and AugmentRX.  Jericho resident Dr. Matthew Gombrich founded Viridis to develop medical diagnostic equipment that has the potential to revolutionize the way doctors test patients for medical ailments.  Bell Global Systems, cofounded by John Bell of the United Kingdom and Julie Viskup from Panton, Vermont, has developed and patented a precise two-way personal security system using global positioning technologies.  Shelburne resident and AugmentRX CEO Stuart Smyth hopes his medical device company, which has developed a bio-ceramic tissue bulking agent, will create alternatives for surgery and drug therapy for a wide variety of patients.

 

The Vermont Technology Council took a moment during Monday’s announcement to present Leahy with the 2008 Luther F. Hackett Award, a distinguished recognition given to Vermonters who have made significant contributions Vermont’s economy. 

 

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