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<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-fc12e773-3c69-8e7d-7a6d-9ac34df3783d"><span style="font-size: 15px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;">Ohio University's '''Innovation Center''' is housed in a 36,000 square foot facility and aims to provide business incubation to better the economy of Athens and surrounding regions. Clients of the research center have access to office space, conference rooms, shared lab space, executives-in-residence, workshops, wellness, company discounts, company promotions, and extensive networking opportunities.</span></span></span></span>

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">'''Adena Ventures''' was founded in 2002 and serves primarily the Appalachian region. This venture firm which operates through the innovation center provides equity capital and operation assistance to high-growth businesses.</span></span></span>

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">'''Athenian Venture Partners''' invests in technology and information technology firms. This firm is renowned for its high returns on investment.</span></span></span>

<font colorspan style="#000000font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15pxsmall; "><font color="#000000"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The '''East Central Ohio Tech Angel Fund''' focuses on opportunities in east-central and southeast Ohio. This fund consists of 27 investors and is one of the largest rurally focused investment funds in the United States.</span></font></span></span>

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-fc12e773-3c69-8e7d-7a6d-9ac34df3783d"><span style="font-size: 15px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;">The '''Ohio Small Business Development Center''' at Ohio University provides free business consulting to small businesses - new and existing - in Athens, Hocking, Meigs, and Perry Counties. The Ohio SBDC has been hosted at Ohio University since 1988. This arrangement has allowed the Ohio SBDC to leverage the relationship with the university to gain access to resources that would otherwise not be available to the local entrepreneur.</span></span></span></span>

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-fc12e773-3c69-8e7d-7a6d-9ac34df3783d"><span style="font-size: 15px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;">'''TechGROWTH''' delivers intensive operational assistance through “Executives in Residence” who validate opportunities and prepare companies for investment. &nbsp;In addition, TechGROWTH provides small, competitive “Growth Funding” to qualifying companies to overcome targeted commercialization obstacles, pre-seed investments providing “first-in” funding for technology startups, and access to a regional network of angel investors for “follow-on” capital needs as well as access to venture capital markets to fund the “scale up” of production, sales, and marketing. &nbsp;&nbsp;TechGROWTH is funded by an Ohio Third Frontier grant with support from Ohio University and private capital. &nbsp;TechGROWTH’s impact shows a leverage ratio of over $9 of follow-on resources acquired for client companies for every $1 of state money invested, achieving over $69.7 million flowing into the region over its first four years.</span></span></span></span>