You are currently viewing New York State Innovation Summit Connects Startups With Funding and Resources
The image used is for informational purposes only. Image Source: https://www.btpm.org/

New York State Innovation Summit Connects Startups With Funding and Resources

Prime Highlights-

  • The New York State Innovation Summit brings high-tech startups, investors and manufacturers to Buffalo to find partners, funding and resources.
  • Buffalo-based Axenica Bioscience joins a commercialization competition at the Innovation Summit where companies compete for a top prize of $150,000.

Key Facts-

  • FuzeHub, an Albany-based center, works to unite state programs, universities, accelerators and incubators with startups.
  • Empire State Development highlights New York’s network of resources for developing, scaling and commercializing new technology.

Background-

High-tech business owners, entrepreneurs, manufacturers and investors have gathered at the Buffalo Convention Center for the New York State Innovation Summit. The two-day event runs Tuesday and Wednesday and connects startups with partners and resources that can help them reach the market.

“We try to get everyone under one roof,” said Elena Garuc, executive director of FuzeHub, an Albany-based center that unites potential partners. She said state-funded programs, universities, nonprofits, accelerators and incubators attend to offer services, grants and experts.

The agenda covers how to sharpen a pitch for seed funding, how to pick the right metrics to judge a startup and which mistakes young companies make most often.

Buffalo-based Axenica Bioscience is among the companies attending. The firm supplies the viruses that test makers use to check their products. President and co-founder Kelly Cycon said Axenica serves in vitro diagnostics manufacturers, clinical labs and public health labs.

CEO Naveen Bangia said the team sources current strains, such as flu and COVID, from partners and grows them at its Buffalo lab. The team then turns them into products and confirms the identity, amount and effectiveness of each one.

Axenica also takes part in the summit’s commercialization competition, where companies show how ready they are for the market. The top prize is $150,000.

Hope Knight, commissioner, president and CEO of Empire State Development, said the prize can help a startup, and the state offers more support. She said New York invests in a network of assets that help innovators develop, scale and commercialize technology.