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FAST Grants
25 small businesses awarded funds to help them succeed
t
he Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) awarded $184,832 in FAST Grants to 25 Arizona small businesses to help them initiate their commercialization processes. The awards, which range from $5,000 to $7,500 per company, can be used toward services that include technology reviews, commercialization feasibility studies, and commercialization assistance such as training or preparation for federal grant submissions.
DID YOU KNOW? Through a suite of programs, including the FAST Grants, the Arizona Commerce Authority is providing valuable tools to help small businesses and start-ups advance in our economy and ultimately ignite job creation in the state. This has helped start-ups become the lifeblood of Arizona’s economy and serve as a prime engine of economic growth.
This also has resulted in Arizona: • Ranking fi fth in the nation for business start-ups. • Experiencing a 57 percent increase in entrepreneurial activity since 2008. • Ranking sixth in the nation as a top entrepreneurship and innovation state. • Ranking in the Top 10 in small business lending. • Securing the expansion of Silicon
Valley Bank, the country’s premier lending institution for venture capitalists.
To help continue this momentum, the A CA: • Will award $3 million for the Arizona
Innovation Challenge in 2012 to promising start-ups. • Secured $18.2 million from the U.S.
Department of Treasury’s Small
Business Credit Initiative for debtfi nancing. • Administers the $800,000 State
Trade and Export Initiative to increase Arizona businesses export opportunities.
+ GET CONNECTED www.azcommerce.com and click on “Incentives”
2012 ARIZONA FAST GRANT RECIPIENTS
Acudora (Tucson) Arbsource (Tempe) Arizona Cancer Therapeutics (Tucson) Castle Biosciences, Inc. (Phoenix) Colnatec (Gilbert) Cyclone ADG, LLC (Tucson) Earth Knowledge (Tucson) ECOmplete, LLC (Chandler) Fennova Corp. (Tucson) inXsol (Phoenix) Kinetic Muscles, Inc. (Tempe) Latitude Engineering, LLC (Tucson) Medipacs, Inc. (Tucson) MSDx, Inc. (Tucson) NEST Energy Services (Prescott Valley) Power Gold (Phoenix) Prime Solutions Group (Goodyear) Provista Diagnostics, Inc. (Phoenix Quaesta Instruments, LLC (Tucson) Reply Buy, Inc. (Scottsdale) Science Tomorrow, LLC (Phoenix) Serious Integrated (Chandler) Siegel Consulting, LLC (Scottsdale) Stimwave Technologies, Inc. (Scottsdale) VisionGate (Phoenix
Open Space
FAA should name Arizona a national test range for fl ights
WRITING BY :: GOV. JAN BREWER
i
am pleased to lend my support to the efforts of the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) and its advisers to secure Arizona as one of the selected sites for the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) national test range for the safe integration of unmanned and manned flights in national air space.
Arizona is already the leader in many unmanned aircraft system (UAS) capabilities. The U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground is recognized as a key asset for unmanned aircraft vehicle testing and Fort Huachuca is the home to the world’s largest UAS training center. Coupled with more than 350 days per year of perfect flying weather and our state’s open airspace, Arizona is the perfect location for such an endeavor.
The ACA is working closely with the congressional delegation, the state Legislature, Arizona’s educational institutions, research laboratories, and the vibrant aerospace and defense industry to ensure our state is a selected site.
Securing one of these federal designations will be a huge win for our state. We hope to build upon the success of the existing aerospace and defense industry, which directly contributed about $300 million to state and local tax revenues and employed 39,400 people with an average annual salary of $109,000 in 2009.
Arizona is simply the best place for an FAA UAS testing site, and we stand ready to apply our diverse and proven assets to meet the requirements of the FAA and the nation.
Photo by Amy Sunseri, Fort Huachuca Public Affairs
