A new economic partnership in Louisiana aims to help early stage companies grow, capture angel investments and emerge as job creators.
NexusLA, a subsidiary of the Research Park Corporation, is partnering with Southern University, Innovation Catalyst, NO/LA Angel Network and the Opportunity Funding Corporation to fund the Louisiana Deal Flow Accelerator.
The initiative will help early stage companies find angel and seed investors by streamlining their investment readiness process, with a goal of creating quality jobs in the future, according to a news release from NexusLA.
“We created the Louisiana Deal Flow Accelerator to address common challenges faced by early stage companies seeking capital, especially those that were close but unsuccessful in previous attempts,” says NexusLA CEO Byron Clayton.
The U.S. Economic Development Administration will provide a $250,000 grant over a two-year period to partially fund the nearly $500,000 initiative.
The initiative also hopes to bring budding entrepreneurs from Louisiana’s historically black colleges and universities into the “deal flow” pipeline. It will facilitate “hackathon-based business challenges” for HBCUs, during which computer programmers will gather to collaborate on new programs and ideas.
“The initiative also mines Louisiana’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities for exceptional young talent with ideas and products that have commercialization potential,” Clayton says in a prepared statement.
