Following through on a previous $250 million commitment to nurture home-grown technology and jobs, Connecticut’s technology investing arm has established a $1 million fund for high-tech startups.
Connecticut Innovations Inc. said this fund is a 10-week pilot to identify entrepreneurs with promising technology ideas or products, ply them with initial capital, and team them with mentors and other professional resources.
At the end, participating teams must ready pitch to investors and launch a company.
The pilot program supporting the TechStart-funded teams will be directed by CTech@Science Park at Yale in New Haven begins in March.
The application deadline is Feb. 22.
CI said the TechStart Fund is the first of several new initiatives slated to be launched under CI’s recently announced plan to deploy $250 million over the next five years.
“We’ve had great success in supporting student-led ventures in recent years and hope to encourage more students, as well as other entrepreneurs, to test the waters with new business concepts through TechStart,” CI President Peter Longo said in a statement Thursday.
