-$450,000 Committed to Using Entrepreneurship as a Means of Economic Development-

[Richmond, VA – May 11,  2022] Activation Capital, a leading entrepreneurship and ecosystem development organization, was awarded $300,000 from GO Virginia for Region 4’s Regional Entrepreneurship Initiative (REI).  The funding, coupled with cash and in-kind donations from Altria, Dominion Energy, Greensville County, and Activation Capital will total $450,000 to design a strategic growth plan for regional entrepreneurship.

The REI will develop a strategy to accelerate the growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Central Virginia, spanning small businesses and scalable tech ventures. With this initiative, the region will set a strategic direction to increase the rate of new business creation, coordinate resources, and programs, accelerate existing businesses and identify opportunities to strengthen the business founder pipeline.

“Investing in entrepreneurship and supporting startups is essential to growing our regional economy,” says Chandra Briggman, President, and CEO of Activation Capital.  “This effort will take a broad look across the region to identify existing strategies, assets, resources, and needs — and leverage those insights to build an integrated supply chain of support to grow the number of successful entrepreneurs. It’s imperative that we design clear pathways for aspiring business founders and organize our collective resources to aid them from idea to launch and growth. This funding will help the region design a framework to accomplish this collaboratively.”

While Activation Capital’s work typically focuses on developing scalable tech businesses, the organization is the designated lead for regional entrepreneurship strategy and has designed a strategic planning approach that encompasses stakeholders supporting small businesses as well as tech startups. Multiple open stakeholder meetings have taken place, and a strategy committee has been established with representatives from ChamberRVA, Virginia Gateway Region, Activation Council, Virginia Union University, Virginia State University, the University of Richmond, the Community Foundation, Lighthouse Labs, Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing, Greensville County, SBDC, and Jackson Ward Collective.  

“Activation Capital’s Regional Entrepreneurship Initiative is taking a fresh approach to ecosystem building by getting buy-in from diverse stakeholders from across the region and developing pilot projects to test and validate gaps. This represents one of the first efforts to connect the Greater Richmond and Greater Petersburg areas into a holistic entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem,” said Conaway Haskins, Vice President of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC). VIPC previously recognized Activation Capital’s contributions as the region’s tech ecosystem leader by awarding it funding from the Regional Innovation Fund, a state-funded grant program administered by that organization. “With this additional valuable funding support coming from GO Virginia, Activation Capital will generate real-time lessons learned that can be shared with other ecosystems across the Commonwealth and beyond.” 

One outcome of the regional entrepreneurship initiative is to identify a small business “lead” organization to coordinate small business efforts regionally.  Other important outcomes include the consolidation of ecosystem research; a comprehensive map of regional assets; an ecosystem gap analysis; a plan for addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion; a comprehensive regional strategic plan for ecosystem growth and sustainability; and prioritization of strategic initiatives. 

Region 4, is comprised of the counties of Charles City, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Goochland, Greensville, Hanover, Henrico, New Kent, Powhatan, Prince George, Surry, and Sussex, and the cities of Colonial Heights, Emporia, Hopewell, Petersburg, and Richmond, has all of the key elements needed to support all entrepreneurs and the funding of this project will allow for the creation of an updated strategic plan to move the needle in Central Virginia.

This project is funded in part by GO VIRGINIA, a state-funded initiative administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) that strengthens and diversifies Virginia’s economy and fosters the creation of higher-wage jobs in strategic industries.

 

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About Activation Capital

Established in 1993, the Virginia Biotechnology Research Partnership Authority (dba Activation Capital) is a self-sustaining, independent authority of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its mission is to grow life sciences and other advanced technology innovations by promoting scientific research and economic development that attracts and creates new jobs and companies.  With 1.2 million square feet of space developed on over 34 acres, its Virginia Bio+Tech Park is the hub of life science and technology innovations in Central Virginia.  Activation Capital also serves as a leading innovation ecosystem development organization providing social, knowledge, and financial capital to clusters, entrepreneur support organizations, and entrepreneurs – accelerating their progress through development and maturation. For more information, visit https://www.activation.capital.

 

About GO Virginia / GO Virginia Region 4

GO Virginia is a state-funded initiative administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) that strengthens and diversifies Virginia’s economy and fosters the creation of higher-wage jobs in strategic industries. For more information, please visit www.govirginia.org. GO Virginia Region 4 covers the cities of Colonial Heights, Emporia, Hopewell, Petersburg, and Richmond; and the counties of Charles City, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Goochland, Greensville, Hanover, Henrico, New Kent, Powhatan, Prince George, Surry, and Sussex. In addition, the GROW Capital Jobs Foundation serves as Region 4’s support organization. The support organization will provide fiduciary oversight and administrative services for activities related to GO Virginia in Region 4. For more information on Region 4, please visit https://growcapitaljobs.org/.