Seed

NC IDEA serves as a catalyst for young, high-growth, technology companies in North Carolina. We help these innovative companies mainly by providing early financing in the form of grants. NC IDEA knows that money alone does not drive success. The management team at NC IDEA understands the needs of startups. The staff at NC IDEA has experience in building and advising young companies and is available as a resource for those companies that are awarded one of our grants.

Provide small business loans and financial training to start-ups and existing businesses along with lending services to community-based organizations.

The Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) has helped North Carolina businesses grow and create new jobs since 1984. We provide management counseling and educational services to small and mid-sized businesses.

IMAF-RTP is one of the Inception Micro Angel Funds and is a member-managed seed stage angel capital fund designed to capitalize on the growth in entrepreneurial activity and venture financing, primarily in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, greater North Carolina and in selective areas of Virginia and South Carolina.

The Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) Program is a joint venture launched by the City of Greenville and Greenville Utilities (the City’s public utilities) to provide minority and women-owned firms an equal opportunity to do business with the City and GUC. The MWBE program offers one-on-one mentoring to coach firms on how to best position themselves for success in government contracting. The MWBE Program also provides training opportunities on a variety of topics, including “How to Submit Responsive Bids,” “Certification Made Easy,” and “Understanding Local Preference.” In the Fall and Spring, the MWBE Program hosts events to directly connect firms with government purchasers and to provide marketing and promotion of MWBE firms to the larger Greenville community. Visit our website to search our directory of local, state, and federal government opportunities.

We’re well known for making connections that create biotech jobs statewide. But we also offer two popular funding programs to make sure people with big ideas mix and mingle.

Our event sponsorships, for example, provide up to $3,000 to help bring biotech people together within North Carolina.

Meanwhile, our meeting grants provide non-profits up to $10,000 to help them bring major life science meetings to the state. Bringing in thought leaders from across the U.S. and around the globe puts a great spotlight on North Carolina and its life science leadership.

The department writes grant applications, and administers the resulting grants including public works projects, hazard mitigations, public facilities development, CDBG/ED direct loans to companies that result in job creation and Rural Center economic development grants.

ACA is a collective of accredited angel investors, North America’s most prolific early-stage investment class. The association is the largest angel professional development organization in the world. ACA provides an insider perspective that can help you make smart investment decisions.

CED is its network. A broad, dynamic array of entrepreneurs, investors, strategic partners, service providers, academics and researchers feed the entrepreneurial success CED has fostered for more than three decades. Their stories are our stories. With their help, CED has become one of the most powerful networks for entrepreneurs in the US.

The Small Business Center (SBC) is dedicated to the training of potential and existing small business owners. Training sessions are offered as free seminars as well as customized individual business training events. The Small Business Center offers more than 125 free seminars each year on various business topics including: Financing, Management, Marketing, and Accounting/Record Keeping. The SBC also offers free, confidential one-on-one business consulting services to assist you in the daily operation of your business. These services can include: a Financial Analysis of Your Company, Market and Industry Research, Loan Packages, Business Plans, Marketing Plans, and Strategic Planning.

East Carolina University’s Operation Reentry North Carolina (ORNC) is a national research support organization developing novel technologies and approaches that address the resiliency, rehabilitation and reintegration concerns of our nation’s service members, veterans, their families, as well as the civilian and military healthcare providers who care for them.

NCBC connects the company and university researchers; the funders and the small companies; the job seekers and job providers. We provide funding when few others do. We keep an eye on emerging biotech sectors. And we make sure North Carolina leads the way.

Connect entrepreneurs with mentors

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center understands the importance of emerging entrepreneurial companies to the state’s biotechnology industry. Through the Business and Technology Development Program, the Center awards low-interest loans to promising emerging life science companies across the state. These loans are designed to help recipients meet meaningful research and commercial milestones.

Established in 2012, SpringBoardNC was created to foster and support entrepreneurship in the I-95 / Hwy 64 Region of Eastern North Carolina, by serving as a resource hub to individuals looking to start or grow their business

Mark Phillips is responsible for directing and promoting biotechnology-related growth and development activities for the Biotechnology Center’s Eastern Office in Greenville. Phillips serves as the regions’ contact to the Biotechnology Center’s grant and loan funding programs, while working with companies, schools and institutions throughout a 27-county region to strengthen biotechnology research, business, education and workforce training, and to identify new opportunities for commercial biotechnology

Our mission is to develop, promote and implement sound economic strategies to improve the quality of life of rural North Carolinians. We serve the state’s 80 rural counties, with a special focus on individuals with low to moderate incomes and communities with limited resources.

ECU’s Office of Innovation and Economic Development (OIED) delivers and supports regional transformation by fostering community enhancement & regional development, a regional innovation workforce, cluster-based economic development, and the proliferation of innovation, entrepreneurship and small business.

The North Carolina Lawyers for Entrepreneurs Assistance Project (NC LEAP) is a public service program of the North Carolina Bar Association to provide legal assistance to low wealth entrepreneurs and small business owners.