In the immediate aftermath of the FY 2018 federal budget deal’s announcement, SSTI covered the increased funding for a few key programs, including Regional Innovation Strategies ($21 million) and the National Science Foundation ($7.5 billion). Today we reveal our full analysis covering several new funding line items and substantial funding increases for regional innovation organizations to consider.

The equal-weighted internal rate of return (IRR) for the venture capital (VC) industry was 6.6 percent between Q2 of 1999 and Q2 of 2017, according to the 1Q 2018 PitchBook Benchmarks. Over that 18-year timespan, several other asset classes – such as private equity (10.5 percent), debt financing (10.1 percent), fund-of-funds (8.1 percent) and several stock market indices – significantly outperformed the VC industry’s equal-weighted IRR.

In a previous Digest, SSTI discussed the positive impact that community banks have had on small business lending activity and economic growth in communities across the country since the Great Recession. In this article, SSTI shares two studies on the existing roadblocks and pessimism faced by minority small business and entrepreneurs as they seek financing through banks.

The U.S. Small Business Administration and Department of Treasury have released strategic plans through FY 2022.

While conventional wisdom suggests that university entrepreneurship efforts should focus on faculty spinoffs or student inventions, recent research highlights the importance of student talent in entrepreneurial ecosystems. In an effort to create employment opportunities in the startup space, several universities throughout the country are implementing programs that embed students into their local startup communities.

In reviewing data regarding the hundreds of TBED-related investment funds, SSTI found that 24 of them have invested in at least one dozen startups each over the past year.  The funds are characterized as economic development, university-centric, regionally focused, or impact oriented investment funds, incubators and accelerator programs located in the U.S. or Canada. Data the various funds provide to  Pitchbook is the source of the list below, ranked in order by activity level.

The SBIR/STTR program, which dubs itself as “America’s Seed Fund,” is one of the broadest forms of early-stage capital available to small technology companies. During the five-year period from 2013 to 2017, the 11 federal agencies participating in the SBIR/STTR program distributed 25,524 awards. Using charts, maps, and a downloadable spreadsheet, this Digest article looks at trends in SBIR/STTR awards by state over the period, including the companies with the most awards and states where SBIR/STTR awards outnumber VC deals.

Several recent articles covered in the National Bureau of Economic Researchers (NBER) Digest suggest that current understanding of policies surrounding wages, clusters and labor concentration may warrant revisiting. In one piece of academic research, a historical argument of shared productivity gains with employees is challenged, while another article shows a loss of bargaining power for employees in concentrated labor markets.

Industry consolidation slowing wage growth, productivity

This June, the Innovation Growth Lab's (IGL) third global annual conference will explore future innovation, entrepreneurship and small business policies. The summit, happening in Boston June 12-14 at Harvard Business School and MIT, includes more than 50 world-leading experts and participants from over 20 countries coming together as part of a global community at the forefront of innovation.

State economic growth relies on the availability of a workforce capable of filling open positions. But increasingly around the country, one of the top concerns of employers is finding the right talent to fill these roles. Beyond corporate strategies in hiring, states are increasingly developing new initiatives to keep their pipeline of talent flowing.

The President’s Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion released a new report focused on “strategies and recommendations to promote apprenticeships, especially in sectors where existing apprenticeship programs are insufficient.” A key element of President Trump’s federal workforce development agenda,

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the EPA have each released new four-year strategic plans, continuing to reflect agencies’ adoption of the Trump administration’s policy directions. HHS has a streamlined science agenda that limits explicit connections to regulation while aiming to expand its overall capacity for research.

Asserting that autonomous vehicles are poised to revolutionize both transportation and the way people live and work throughout the world, KPMG has developed a readiness index that evaluates 20 countries around the world according to four pillars. They include: policy and legislation; technology and innovation; infrastructure; and consumer acceptance.

Low-income students in the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) will be among the first allowed to use federal student aid to enroll in programs offered by nontraditional educational providers. The providers — including coding bootcamps, online courses, and employer organizations — are partnering with accredited colleges or universities through an experimental program called Educational Quality through Innovation Partnerships (EQUIP). The U.S.

The European Commission and European Investment Fund announced the creation of VentureEU – a fund-of-fund initiative intended to increase the availability of venture capital for the continent’s startup community. Through the VentureEU effort, the EU will invest approximately €410 million (approximately 507.8 million USD) across six funds run by established European fund managers.

In February, SSTI highlighted several state-led efforts to address the rural broadband gap, which affects more than 30 percent of rural America who currently lack access to adequate broadband service.

Startups and small businesses raised $30 million during the first year of equity crowdfunding (also known as regulation crowdfunding or Reg CF) with an average of $289,000 raised in a successful campaign, according to a recent report published by the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Advocacy.

NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership program launched a new Policy Academy focused on manufacturing this week. Funded by NIST MEP and organized by SSTI and  the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC), the Policy Academy is designed to help states build upon existing strategies, leverage available resources, and spur creative new ideas about how to address major challenges or leverage opportunities around the manufacturing sector.

Last week, SSTI examined the geography of “America’s Seed Fund,” the SBIR/STTR awards, on a state-by-state basis. A look at how the more than 25,500 awards were distributed at the regional level over the five-year period from 2013 to 2017 yields additional insight. The metropolitan areas with the largest concentrations of SBIR/STTR awards include knowledge hubs with large universities and access to federal R&D, such as Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.

Myriad data point to a decline in the number of new American business starts, but there have been fewer indicators of whether this overall trend was also true for firms with high growth potential. Recent research now provides evidence that these high growth firms are also becoming rarer.

Congress so far has ignored administration budget requests that call for reducing U.S. investment in research and development.  Science and innovation advocates interpret the legislative branch’s decision as good for many reasons. Authors Nicholas Bloom, Charles I. Jones, John Van Reenen, and Michael Webb add another reason in their NBER working paper Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find? They find U.S.

Noting that we have reached a point in time where STEM “influences every aspect of our education, work, and community life,” STEMconnector, a professional services firm, has released a new report that examines the current state of the field, identifies gaps and makes recommendations for action and investment. State of STEM highlights “five critical gaps” in the STEM workforce: a fundamental skills gap; belief gap; postsecondary education gap; geographic gap; and, demographic gap.

Six years after the passage of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (JOBS Act), SSTI continues to examine the impact that the legislation has had on startup capital. In previous weeks, SSTI has looked at Regulation A+ offerings and equity crowdfunding (also known as regulation crowdfunding or Reg CF).

EDA’s Regional Innovation Strategies program — which makes i6 challenge and seed fund support awards — has released its notice of funding opportunity for FY 2018. Applications are due August 29. SSTI hosted a free webinar featuring EDA’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship on June 14.*

A Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) report contains over 20 recommendations for the SEC to consider that would improve small business capital formation. The report, released in April, stems from the 36th annual Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation – a daylong event held late last year.