The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has selected five regional Commercial Accelerators from across the U.S. to rapidly commercialize and scale early-stage technologies for economic and national security.
DARPA said Thursday the Commercial Accelerators will work with DARPA-backed companies that develop early-stage tech platforms to help facilitate access to commercial talent and investor networks, provide additional training and mentoring support and leverage demonstration sites, laboratories and other unique regional capabilities.
The regional Commercial Accelerators are Austin-based Capital Factory, CIMIT at Massachusetts General Hospital, FedTech, SRI International and the Wireless Research Center of North Carolina.
“With these regional accelerators, we can ensure more DARPA-funded teams can recruit top talent, develop robust go-to-market strategies, raise capital, and scale operations, turning groundbreaking technology into high value for national, economic, and societal impact,” said Sha-Chelle Manning, chief of commercial strategy at DARPA.
DARPA expects the accelerators to help improve and scale the Embedded Entrepreneur Initiative pilot program, which offers funding to link a performer’s technical team to commercialization experts.